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14 District Sanitary Inspectors,
2 Sanitary Inspectors (Food),
3 Sanitary Inspectors (Housing),
1 Sanitary Inspector (Outworkers),
1 Sanitary Inspector (Factories and Workshops).
A report which I submitted to the Public Health Committee
in May, 1948, revealed that at that time the total staff of sanitary
inspectors in Hackney was 16.
In a letter dated 6th May, 1944, addressed by the Ministry
of Health to the Town Clerk, reference was made to the serious
shortage of sanitary inspectors which existed at that time
" through the recruitment of officers during the early stages of
the war combined with a heavy falling-off in the yearly number
of newly-qualified officers." The letter went on to say that, " In
these circumstances, and in order that available personnel may
be used to the best advantage, the Minister has assumed as a
rough working rule that a local authority should, for the present,
limit themselves to one sanitary inspector for every 10,000 of
population, though when normal conditions return he would
regard favourably the proposal of a progressive authority to
employ sanitary inspectors in excess of this number. ... I am
to add that the Minister is not overlooking the fact that post-war
schemes may involve additional work for sanitary inspectors and
he is considering, in consultation with appropriate bodies, whether
my steps can he taken to increase the number of sanitary inspectors
available."
The population of this Borough just before the outbreak of
war was 205,100; so that the Borough then had one district
sanitary inspector per 14,650 of the population or, if the Chief
Sanitary Inspector and the "specialist" inspectors—such as the
inspectors engaged on food, outworkers, housing and allied work
under the Housing Act, 1936—are included, one sanitary inspector
per 8,917 of the population. The Registrar General estimated
that at the 30th June, 1948, the population of the Borough was
172,900, and on this figure a complete staff would have allowed
for one district inspector per 12,350 of the population, in a district
where conditions are entirely abnormal.
The indication in the letter of 6th May, .1944, from the
Ministry of Health "that post-war schemes may involve additional
work for sanitary inspectors" is proving to be an accurate forecast,
though the additional work for sanitary inspectors is of a
somewhat different nature, probably, from that then visualised
by the Ministry. The legacy of defective housing left by the
war and of the entirely unexpected difficulty which is being