MR. FENWICKI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he can state to the House the names and nature of previous occupations of the recently-appointed Factory and Workshop Assistant Inspectors?
THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. GEORGE RUSSELL, North Beds.)The names and previous occupations of the recently-appointed Factory Inspectors' Assistants are as follows:— R. J. Foot, engineer and smith; J. Dean, textile (cotton) operative; H. Miller, steel-maker; F. J. Beaumont, textile (woollen) operative; D. Timothy, colliery 579 clerk (a Welshman); F. W. Sedgwick, operative, afterwards clerk in boot and shoe factory; C. H. Morris, shipwright; J. Clark, joiner, employed in a factory, and afterwards engaged in Customs Service (has a certificate of competency as Sanitary Inspector).
MR. FENWICKI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he can state the number of cases reported by the Assistant Factory Inspectors in which a breach of the Factory and Workshops Act is alleged to have taken place; whether any prosecutions have followed upon those Reports; and, if so, how many; and whether he is aware of the fact that these Inspectors are not allowed the free use of materials necessary for the effective and immediate discharge of their duties; and, if so, whether he will undertake that such materials shall be furnished them in accordance with his promise to the deputation which waited upon him in February last?
§ MR. ASQUITHMany prosecutions have followed upon Reports made by the Assistants, but it would be difficult and would, in my opinion, serve no useful purpose to give the precise numbers. All representations from the Assistant Inspectors receive careful attention. No complaint has been made officially by the Assistants that any representations of theirs have been improperly disregarded. If there had been any inconvenience from want of necessary materials, the ordinary course would have been to make an application to the Chief Inspector, and lam informed that no such application has been made. On inquiry I find that it is desirable that Assistant Inspectors should be furnished with satchels and measuring tapes, and steps have already been taken by the Chief Inspector for carrying this out.