§ *SIR CHARLES DILKE (Gloucester, Forest of Dean)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with regard to the statement made by the then Home Secretary in 1891 that he had by the first and second clauses of the Factory Bill of that year, now the Factory Act of 1891, taken dictatorial power (being power to send to workshops a factory inspector or any number of inspectors), whether the power referred to, contained in Section 1 and Section 2, sub-section (2), has been a dead letter
§ MR. ASQUITHNo order has been made under Section 1 of the Factory and Workshops Act 1891. As regards Section 2, sub-section (2), the inspectors have rarely, if ever, taken proceedings under those provisions, but the powers of the section have been useful in enabling the inspectors to secure the attention of local authorities to complaints under Section 4 of the Act of 1878.
§ *SIR CHARLES DILKEI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the Annual Report of the Chief Inspector of Factories will be in the Library?
§ MR. ASQUITHIt will be circulated to-morrow.