70. Mr. MacCALLUM SCOTTasked the Home Secretary whether his attention has been called to the proceedings against Messrs. Granwood and Balley, at Leeds, on 19th April, under the Factory and Workshops Act, for keeping women at work longer than the specified time, and to the statement of the stipendiary magistrate that there had been a clear infringement of the Act, but he was not going to 569 do anything to prevent it in view of the fact that the factory was engaged in manufacturing ammunition; and whether, in view of the danger of permitting magistrates to decide which laws are to be enforced and which are not to be enforced, he proposes to take any steps to bring the orders under the Act into conformity with the needs of the present moment?
§ The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. Cecil Harmsworth)As the case is still sub judice, I am precluded from discussing it. But I may say generally that since the outbreak of the War many thousands of exemptions from the Factory Acts have been granted, and that the Home Office, in consultation with the War Office and the Admiralty, has constantly endeavoured to meet the requirements of the present emergency and to allow such extended hours as will secure the highest degree of efficiency in labour and the maximum output. Experience shows that, while a considerable extension of the ordinary hours is possible without injury, excessive hours necessarily reduce efficiency and so cause diminution of production.
§ Mr. HARMSWORTHI have no information on that point.