MR. KEIR-HARDIEI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that the Inspector of Mines for the Western Division of Scotland has refused to receive a complaint under the Mines Act from a check-weigher, and has stated that the making of such complaint was an interference with the workmen and the management of the mine, and therefore illegal; and whether Section 13, Sub-section 3, of the Coal Mines Regulation Act will bear this interpretation; and, if not, he will instruct the Inspector to receive complaints from check-weighers?
§ MR. ASQUITHThe facts are as stated in the first paragraph of the question. I cannot discover any provision in the Act which entitles an Inspector to refuse to receive a complaint merely because the complainant is a check-weigher, and the Inspector will be informed of my opinion. At the same time, I should point out that the position of the check-weigher in relation to the management of the mine is one of great delicacy, and requires for its proper performance considerable discretion on the part of the occupant in matters of this kind.