I beg to move, in page 6, line 23, at the end, to insert "or sanitary inspector."

This Clause provides that in any of the preceding provisions of the Bill there shall be substituted for reference to a factory inspector a reference to the medical officer of health, and the purpose of the Amendment is to add the words, "or sanitary inspector." In my submission there are quite incontrovertible arguments why this should be done, and I am at a loss to understand how it is that the words of the Amendment are not in the Bill. In the first place the provisions contained in the preceding Clauses, to which reference is made in this Clause, relate to cleanliness (including the removal of offensive accumulations), overcrowding, temperature, ventilation, drainage and sanitary conveniences. In my submission these things are peculiarly the function of the sanitary inspector to deal with. Not only that, but assuming that this Clause goes through as it stands, the House would, in effect, be taking away from sanitary inspectors the power which they at present have, because under the Factory and Workshops Act of 1901 action by a district council is dependent upon a certificate of the medical officer of health or of the sanitary inspector; and if the Clause goes through as it stands, the result would be that the sanitary inspector would be deprived of power which for 36 years he has exercised. That is a very serious matter. The sanitary Inspector is the appropriate officer. He carries out inspections of factories and workshops, and unless the name of his office is put in here he is deprived of a power that he already has.

There are other reasons why I urge this Amendment upon the House. For five or six years I have served with other Members of the House on a number of Consolidation Committees, in particular on a Local Council and Public Health Consolidation Committee, and in quite a number of instances in the Public Health Bill of last year, in order to secure uniformity, the words "or sanitary inspector," or similar words were invariably added by the Committee and were approved by the House. The Factory Acts are analogous, in this respect at any rate, to the Public Health Acts, and it seems to me to be necessary, in the interest of uniformity, to add these words. Furthermore, if the Home Secretary will look at the following Clause, Sub-section (2), he will find these words: Where an inspector finds any such act or default as aforesaid, he may take with him into the factory a medical officer of health, sanitary inspector or other officer of the district council. There the sanitary inspector is mentioned. We all know that in practice this sort of work is invariably done by the sanitary inspector. It may be that formal reports are signed by the medical officer, but the actual work is done by the sanitary inspector, who has the right of entry, the right to prosecute claims and to take action on behalf of the council. Without this Amendment, if I am a factory owner it will be open to me, when the sanitary inspector comes along, even under the direction of a medical officer of health, to say to him, under this Clause as it stands, "Get out; the only person who is entitled to exercise the powers in the preceding Clauses of this Bill is the medical officer. There is no authority for the sanitary inspector to come into my factory"; and it will be open to the sanitary inspector to say to the medical officer of health, That is not one of my functions, you are given the specific function of dealing with cleanliness, ventilation and so on." Confusion will arise; there will be difficulty in a number of respects, and the status of the sanitary inspector, which for 36 years has given him separate powers under the Factory Acts, will be reduced. That is not a desirable thing. Sanitary inspectors have technical examinations to pass and it is right and proper that their status should be preserved.