SECOND READING. (Hansard, 10 July 1871)

THE EARL OF MORLEY,
in moving that the Bill be now read the second time, said, it would effect an important change in the law regulating factories and workshops. By the Workshop Act of 1867 the inspection of all places where people worked not inspected by the Government Inspectors was handed over to the local authorities. The latter, however, having failed to enforce the provisions of the Act, it had become necessary to transfer the power so held by the local authorities to the Government Inspectors. The object of the Bill, therefore, was to transfer the jurisdiction over workshops now committed to the local authorities to 1335 the Inspectors of Factories, and to consolidate, to a great extent, the Factories and Workshops Acts,, and they would hereafter be construed as one Act. It was satisfactory to see that that legislation for factories and workshops had been successful in enlisting the sympathy of all who came under its operation. The operatives and the employers alike were impressed with a conviction of the importance of the working of those Acts, and of the beneficial results they had had on all parties; and it was a matter of congratulation to those who originated the Acts that the Inspectors had now scarcely any difficulty in carrying them into effect. By a slight addition to the staff of the Factories Office it was thought that the whole ground now occupied, partly by the local authorities and partly by the Inspectors, would be covered by that one office, and that the Acts would be uniformly enforced throughout England.

§ THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURY
said, he was pretty certain that this measure would not got through the other House this Session, and he trusted that the noble Earl would employ the Recess in re-constructing the Bill in a more workmanlike shape.

THE EARL OF MORLEY
said, he would be glad if the state of business next year permitted the introduction of a consolidating and amending Act in regard to factories and workshops. The present Bill was necessary to remove a great flaw in the working of their legislation on that subject.