§ 40. Lord H. CAVENDISH-BENTINCKasked the Home Secretary whether, in view of the fact that the work of boy scalers or scurfers on ships in port is not covered by the Factory and Workshop Acts, and that therefore no medical certificate of fitness for the work is required, and having regard to the fact that the work is unhealthy, being carried on in cramped positions in the boilers and in the bilges of ships on days when they are considered too hot for men to enter them, and that the boys of 14 to 17 years of age at times work overtime and occasionally all night, and that the employment is of a casual nature, and that provisions for the welfare of the boys by the supply of protective clothing, etc., are not common, he will extend the Factory Acts to cover this work, whether carried on in ships, in dry dock, wet dock, river, or any harbour?
§ Mr. SHORTTMy attention has not previously been called to this matter, which is, in the main, outside the jurisdiction of my Department. I shall be happy to make inquiries and consider the suggestion of the Noble Lord, if he will be good enough to let me have the particulars on which his question is founded.