§ MR. JOHN WARD (Stoke-on-Trent)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he can state the number of workpeople employed in contact with lead generally, the number employed in white lead factories, the number employed in orange and red lead factories, and the number employed in electrical accumulator works in each case.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) There are no Returns which give the number of workpeople employed in contact with lead. The use of lead in some form or another is so large and varied that it would be almost impossible to obtain figures for it. Neither do the 2359 Returns which are collected by the Factory Department discriminate between the numbers of persons employed in white lead, orange, and red lead factories, respectively. I am, however, able to give the following figures: in 1904 the total number of persons employed in white, orange, and red lead factories was 1,835, and of those employed in electrical accumulator factories, 1,108.