CLAUSE 16.—(Amendment of Employment of Children Act, 1903.) (Hansard, 16 October 1918)

§ Mr. WHITEHOUSE
I beg to move, in Sub-section (1), after the word "substituted" to insert in the Bill the words "a child under the age of twelve shall not be employed and."
This Amendment would place the Scottish Bill on the same footing with regard to this matter, as the Bill for England which was passed a few weeks ago. In the English Bill employment was forbidden for children under the age of twelve years. I think it is rather a surprising thing that in the Bill as drawn for Scotland we should have neglected that very necessary provision for the protection of children less than twelve years of age, and that it should have been omitted. I should like to ask the Secretary for Scotland why this difference has been made between the two Bills. The English Bill forbids the employment of school children under twelve; the Scottish Bill does not contain that provision at all; it misses out the provision prohibiting employment for profit in the case of children under that age. I feel quite sure that the House, if I may say so, did not regard the provision in the English Bill as an unduly harsh provision. I think the feeling of the House, when the English Bill was under consideration, was that it was wholly reasonable to prohibit the employment of school children 195 under the age of twelve, and I think that most people outside this House felt that it was a wholly reasonable provision to prevent these infants from being employed for profit. That being so, it is, I think, a mistake to imagine that the people of Scotland are going to be content with something less than the protection that was given to English children in the English Bill. I am quite sure that public opinion in Scotland is not less advanced on this question than public opinion in England. I cannot imagine any vested interest in Scotland which would raise any objection—or which, if it raised any objection, would meet with considerable support—to the provision I am now moving, protecting children under the age of twelve from employment. I sincerely trust that the Government will accept the Amendment. Certainly I am not moving it in any controversial spirit—it is not an Amendment that will divide this House on the lines of party. It is, in itself, a wholly moderate Amendment; it simply extends the provisions of the English Act, so far as they relate to children who have not attained the age of twelve years, to the Scottish Bill.
I do not think that any more words of mine are necessary in order to explain this Amendment, which is so wholly reasonable. I will therefore content myself with pointing out that it is demanded in Scotland; it is demanded by representative bodies in Scotland, who represent every phase of political and social thought. The demand that comes from Scotland for the protection of these children is based upon a knowledge of the very serious social conditions that exist in many parts of Scotland. I must remind the Lord Advocate that in the various inquiries that have taken place on social questions in recent years in Scotland, particular attention has been placed upon the need of doing much more to restrict the way in which the labour of school children was used. I would remind the Lord Advocate of a very weighty Report that was presented to this House dealing with the conditions arising out of street trading by children. I only mention that in passing, because street trading is dealt with in this Bill But that Report contains a vast amount of evidence dealing with the general question of the use of school children in various forms of industry. That is not 196 the only Report, as the Lord Advocate well knows. There are many other very serious Reports that have been presented to the Government and to this House, dealing with social conditions in Scotland, particularly from the standpoint of the use of school children improperly and prematurely in the industrial world. This Amendment will not go a very long way towards rectifying all the evils that have been brought to light, but it will go some way. It will prevent children under the age of twelve from any longer being used improperly in the industrial world, to their ruin and to the great loss of the nation.

§ Mr. MUNRO
I have considerable sympathy with the motive which lies behind the Amendment which my hon. Friend has moved, but of course the effect of the Amendment, as he quite sees, is to set up a bar, and to prevent a child under the age of twelve from being employed in any capacity whatever. I may be right or I may be wrong, but the view which was taken when this Bill was framed, and to which I adhered—as I have done so far to the original provisions of it—was that it seemed rather hard and not quite reasonable to prevent young children—say crofters' children—from working on the land or doing a little bit of harvest work for their parents. It strikes me, prima facie, as being unreasonable to set up an absolute barrier against that work.

§ Mr. WHITEHOUSE
That very point was met in the English Act.

§ Mr. MUNRO
It is not met in this Amendment. I am quite aware that there is a relaxing power in the English Act—I have not got the Act before me at the moment.

§ Mr. WHITEHOUSE
Well, put that in.

§ Mr. MUNRO
But my hon. Friend has got no Amendment to that effect at all.

§ Mr. WHITEHOUSE
Yes; I will move that at a later stage.

§ Mr. MUNRO
When I see my hon. Friend's Amendment at a later stage I will consider it. But, in the meantime, I do suggest that apart from any such relaxation it would be quite unreasonable to prevent the employment of a child, even be that child under the age of twelve, from merely assisting his father, say, a crofter or a small agriculturist, in getting in his crops. There would be no harm to the 197 child; it would be all to the child's benefit; and any restrictive prohibition of this kind appears to me to be entirely unreasonable. Therefore I am afraid I cannot accept the Amendment.

§ Mr. MUNRO
I beg to propose, in Subsection (1), to leave out the words "but under the age of fifteen."
This is a purely drafting Amendment, which is, I submit, necessary in connection with the definition of "child."