§ Mr. RAMSAY MACDONALD (Leicester)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether before issuing Order No. 1,010 regarding the separation of departments in laundries, he consulted representatives of the workpeople engaged; whether any district inspectors have certified laundries under the Order, and what number of applications have been made by proprietors for such certificates; whether the effect of the Order is to allow laundries to work between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m., with three different batches of workpeople working for different periods in the same laundry; and whether factory inspectors have frequently reported that under such conditions they find it impossible to check the number of hours worked by the individual employee.
§ MR. GLADSTONEYes, Sir; before the Order was issued it was published in draft and in accordance with the practice now followed as a result of consultation between the Department and the Parliamentary Committee of the Trade Union Congress, copies were sent to that committee for communication to the representatives of the workmen concerned. I am informed that 334 applications have been received in the different districts (excepting three from which Returns have not yet come in) and 230 certificates have been granted. The Order will allow different periods of employment to be 1360 worked in the different departments, and in the Metropolitan area where the period of employment from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. is permissible it would be possible for work to be going on in the laundry from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., but not, of course, in the same department or for the same worker. The Answer to the last paragraph of the Question is in the negative, and I do not anticipate that any difficulty will arise under the Order.