§ MR. RANKIN (Herefordshire, Leominster)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether an industrial school under the management of a voluntary and unpaid committee is subject to the provisions of the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1897; if steam power is used to cut wood or do other things in connection with the work of the school; and, if so, whether the members of the committee are individually liable to be called upon to pay compensation to any one of their workmen should he receive any injury when employed in the home; and whether it is permissible for an industrial home, receiving Government money, to be carried on by a limited company? In putting the Question, I should like to point out that the limited company referred to in the second paragraph 208 of the Question is a company formed under clause 23 of the Act of 1867 for philanthropic purposes, and not for profit-making.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir M. WHITE RIDLET,) Lancashire, BlackpoolThe Act will apply, so far as workmen employed are concerned, if the premises come within the statutory definition of a factory; and I am not aware that there is anything to prevent individual members of the committee being liable. There is no legal objection, I believe, to a board of managers being incorporated as a limited company, and there are one or two cases in which this has been done.