§ Mr. William Wilsonasked the Minister of Labour, whether he is satisfied with the rate of progress in relation to inspections under the Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act, 1963; if he will state by categories the number of inspections already carried out; and what is his estimate of the number which will have to be carried out to complete the inspection of premises now in existence.
§ Mr. ThorntonI am reasonably satin; fled with the rate of progress so far, though it will inevitably be a long term task to inspect all existing premises and inspection is not a once-for-all process.
Figures of inspections in 1964 are given in Table 3 of my first report on the Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act, 1963. Later figures are not available since they are collected from local authorities annually. It is not, therefore, possible at this stage to give a reliable estimate of the number of inspections which would be necessary to complete the initial inspection of existing premises.