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Unfortunately there is no provision in the Act for prior approval of office premises and it
sometimes happens that, notwithstanding heavy expenditure on alterations or improvements, a
subsequent inspection of the premises may indicate the existence of contraventions of the Act
which necessitate further expenditure. This sequence of events is understandably not received
with a good grace by the responsible persons, whether they be owners or occupiers of office
accommodation.
There is also no provision in the Act for the service of statutory notices and the existence
of a contravention constitutes an offence in respect of which it is possible to take immediate
legal action. However, it is the normal practice of this Department to indicate all contraventions
which are discovered as a result of routine inspections to the responsible person, either verbally
or in writing, thereby enabling appropriate remedial measures to be taken without the necessity
of initiating more formal action. This method of enforcement has worked smoothly, although it
must be admitted that, at times, owners and occupiers of office premises have been somewhat
dilatory in the execution of essential works.
Over the years the principal yardstick for measuring the rate of progress made in the implementation
of the provisions of the Act has naturally been the number of general inspections
carried out. In this connection, however, it is important to point out that because of the great
variations in the size of individual occupations of office space the number of general inspections
does not necessarily give an accurate indication of the time and effort expended on this work.
However, the improved rate of progress achieved in the last few years has again been maintained
in the year under review, the number of general inspections amounting to 2,103 as compared with
2,168 in the previous year. While this figure is not as high as could have been wished, it does
however give some indication of the continuous effort which has been made by the Public Health
Inspectors engaged on this work, and undoubtedly would have been higher had it not been for an
unfilled vacancy in this section of the department.
Some of the work carried out has been nullified by the continuous changeover in the occupancy
of office accommodation caused by the removal of tenants and the demolition of office blocks
which has taken place as an inevitable preliminary to large new developments.
It is therefore almost impossible to reach a state when it can be said at any given moment
of time that all offices in use in the City have received at least one initial inspection.
The table below shows the number of written intimations which have been sent during the
course of the year, together with an analysis of the varying types of contraventions which were
discovered. Whilst from a technical point of view ventilation continues to be the most difficult
problem to resolve, it has been noted that there are an increasing number of offices where there
is an absence of thorough day-to-day cleaning, which, it is understood, has been caused by the
difficulty of recruiting cleaning staff. The attempt to ease this shortage by the use of contract
cleaners has not been entirely successful as such cleaning tends to be superficial rather than
thorough.
The enforcement of the provisions of the Hoists and Lifts Regulations which came into
operation during 1969 has proved to be an onerous and time-consuming additional responsibility,
and it is surprising to find the number of small firms, particularly caterers, who have no knowledge
whatsoever of the requirements of these Regulations, which were designed to ensure that
all hoists and lifts in office and shop premises shall be inspected by a competent person at sixmonthly
intervals and that effective steps will be taken to enforce the execution of necessary
repairs and renewals and to bring all such lifts up to a prescribed standard of safety.
During the year 238 reports were received regarding lifts which required either substantial
overhaul or the execution of repairs or renewals. This necessitated a separate communication
to the responsible person in each individual case and a varying number of "follow-up" visits in
order to ensure that the required work was subsequently carried out. In one case it was necessary
to institute legal proceedings where in an office block it was found that the lift had not been
enclosed to the full height in accordance with the provisions of Regulations 7(1) to (4), and notwithstanding
several written representations by this Department there had been failure to carry
the necessary work. The defendants pleaded guilty, and although the requisite work was put in
hand after the service of the summons and had been completed by the time of the hearing, nevertheless
a fine of £25 was imposed and the defendants were ordered to pay £10 towards the cost of
the prosecution. So far as is known, this was the first prosecution of its kind in the country.
The fact that a fatal accident occurred during the year to a person using a lift in a block
of offices in the City indicates the importance of ensuring the effective enforcement of the
Hoists and Lifts Regulations.
Unfortunately the imprecise wording of Section 6(2) of the Regulations which states: "The
report shall be preserved and shall be kept readily available for inspection by an Inspector
for two years after the date of the signing of the report" has resulted in much wastage of the time
of the Public Health Inspectors of this Department as there is no agreed definition of the words
"readily available". It would undoubtedly be helpful to an enforcing authority if this Regulation
were altered to read "... readily available on the premises unless alternative arrangements are
made to the satisfaction of the appropriate local authority."
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