§ MR. WOODSI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department will he explain why the parchment certificates of authority formerly issued to the inspectors of factories' assistants by the predecessor of the right hon. Gentleman have been lately withdrawn, and in the new certificates issued to them all power to enter factories and schools has been omitted, and power given to them only to enter and inspect workshops and workshop laundries; whether the inspector assistants would be trespassers should they inadvertently enter a factory; and, whether he is aware that the latterly issued instructions are causing a great amount of injury to the workers by preventing an adequate inspection especially in factories and schools?
§ *THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEY,) Lancashire, BlackpoolThere has been no change of practice in this matter as the hon. Member seems to suppose. Inspectors' assistants, from the time when the class was instituted by my predecessor, never have inspected factories or schools; their duties have always been confined to workshops, and the alteration in the certificate has been made with the object of preventing any misunderstanding as to their position. The injury which the change is supposed to be causing to the workers must be imaginary. I think the provisions of Section 68 of the Act of 1878 would protect an inspector's assistant who entered a factory.