§ MR. WEIR (Ross and Cromarty)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in view of the remarks contained in the recently issued Report of the Chief Inspector of Factories and Workshops relative to the fire in Queen Victoria Street, will he consider the advisability of introducing legislation such as will bring small factories and workshops within the scope of the Factory Act, with a view to ensure workers being afforded adequate means of escape in case of fire.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Akers Douglas) Small factories and workshops are already within the scope of the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901, and under Section 15 thereof local authorities have power to make bylaws providing for means of escape from fire in the case of any factory or workshop. The premises on which the 661 fire in question took place were neither a factory nor a workshop within the meaning of the Act.