§ *SIR CHARLES DILKE (Gloucester, Forest of Dean)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he has refused to extend the Particulars Section (sub-sec. 6), sec. 40, of the Factories and Workshops Act, 1895, to the Felt Hatters and Trimmers Union; whether a large number of employers already supply particulars to all their workpeople in this industry; and whether it would therefore be well to generalise this agreement by the substitution of the Particulars Section for the voluntary arrangement?
§ SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEYYes, it is true that I have not seen my way to extend the provisions of the Particulars Section to the Felt Hat trade. I have inquired very fully into the question, but I find that, owing to the nature of the particulars required in this industry, no order which it is within my power to make could be effectively enforced. I am not prepared to make an order which could not be effectively enforced and yet might have the effect of disturbing the voluntary arrangement for supplying particulars which, as the right hon. Baronet suggests, now prevails in the greater part of the trade.