§ MR. D. CRAWFORDI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he has further considered the complaints brought before him last Session from the mining district round Airdrie, alleging that the provisions of Section 21 of the Coal Mines Regulation Act, which requires that daily personal supervision shall be exercised either by the manager or by an under manager nominated in writing by the owner or agent of the mine, are in many cases habitually neglected; whether he has completed his investigation into these complaints; and what conclusion he has come to as to the further steps which it may be desirable to take?
§ MR. MATTHEWSIn accordance with my undertaking to the hon. Gentleman last year, I went carefully into the requirements of Section 21 of the Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1887, with reference to the collieries in the mining districts in question. In the result I instructed the Inspector to inform the proprietors that, in the absence of daily personal supervision by the manager, there must be a certificated under manager at each pit, and that it was essential that the requirements of the Statute as to daily personal supervision should be strictly observed.