§ MR. KEIR HARDIE (Merthyr Tydvil)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he purposes introducing this session such legislation as will place underground kitchens in hotels and restaurants and other refreshment houses under the same conditions as already apply to underground bake-houses in view of the report made by Dr. Collingridge, the medical officer of health to the City of London, showing that there are 135 underground kitchens in London which are unfit for the purpose of cooking food.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Akers-Douglas.) I am advised that the kitchens of restaurants are "work-places" within the meaning of the Public Health Acts and Section 2 of the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901, and therefore local authorities, including the Court of Common Council for the City of London, to whom, if I understand aright, the report mentioned in the Question was made, have considerable powers for the enforcement of sanitation in such places. I am not prepared to introduce legislation applying to these kitchens the provisions of Section 101 of the Act of 1901, which I understand to be the hon. Member's suggestion.