§ MR. BRAMSDON (Portsmouth)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the factory and workshop regulations made by him on the 21st January last in respect of dangerous and unhealthy industries, which do not apply to factories and workshops in which paints and colours are manufactured, not for sale, but solely for use in the business of the occupier, apply to the Royal Dockyards; and, if not, whether he will explain why this is so, and arrange that all Government workshops shall be included, and the workmen so employed receive the benefit of these regulations which materially affect their lives and health.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. GLADSTONE,) Leeds, W.The regulations do not apply to the Royal Dockyards. Places in which the manufacture of paints is carried on only as ancillary to the main business of the factory were not included in the rules because the same danger to the workers is not found to exist in these places as in places where the manufacture is carried on for sale as the business of the factory. Nearly all the cases of plumbism reported from dockyards occur to men engaged in using the mixed paints, or in scraping off old paint in confined spaces such as the double bottom of ships, and to these processes the paint and colour regulations do not apply. Any danger, however, 768 that may be caused to the workers employed in the dockyards in the making of paints by the inhalation of poisonous dust can be dealt with adequately by ordinary administrative action under Section 74 of the Factory Act, and such action will be taken wherever necessary.