§ SIR J. GORST () Cambridge UniversityI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to a recent case at the Marylebone Police Court in which the Magistrate decided that the Factory and Workshops Acts did not fix any hour after which work was illegal; whether the Factory Inspectors have, for the last 20 years, frequently prosecuted persons for employing women and children after 10 p.m., and obtained convictions; and whether it is his intention to take any steps to have the legal decision in question reviewed by a higher tribunal, or to have the Factory and Workshops Acts amended so as to make the employment of women and children after 10 p.m. illegal?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. ASQUITH, Fife, E.)I have had my attention called to this case. The Magistrate who has refused to convict has informed the Chief Magistrate that on further consideration he has arrived at the conclusion that his interpretation of the section of the Factory Act, under which the conviction was asked for, was erroneous. The difficulty will, therefore, probably not occur again.