The Offices, shops and railway premises Act, 1963 / With introduction and annotations by Ian Fife and E. Anthony Machin. Being a reprint of Butterworths Annotated Legislative Service, Statutes Supplement no. 138.

  • United Kingdom
Date:
1963
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Offices, shops and railway premises Act, 1963 / With introduction and annotations by Ian Fife and E. Anthony Machin. Being a reprint of Butterworths Annotated Legislative Service, Statutes Supplement no. 138. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    INTRODUCTION With the passing of this Act statutory control of the conditions of work, which began with the early nineteenth century regulation of the textile industry, receives a wide extension estimated to cover the employment of eight million people in the non-industrial field. It follows—after some fourteen years—the recommendations of the Gowers Committee (which reported in March 1949 (Cmd. 7664)) with regard to shops and offices, but the recommendations concerning the railway industry are given but limited effect and those concerning theatres still await legislation. The present Act supersedes the Offices Act 1960, introduced by Mr. Richard Marsh, M.P., as a Private Member’s Bill, which enabled the Secretary of State to make regulations for securing the health, safety and welfare of persons employed in offices, but since no regulations were made under that Act its repeal has solely formal effect. The present Act follows the general pat- tern of the Factories Act 1961, in that it contains both a number of important substantive provisions and extensive powers to make regulations governing matters of detail, and the wording of the Factories Act has been deliberately adhered to where it is relevant to the scope of this Act—not, perhaps, with altogether satisfactory results. This Act, like the Factories Act, although enforceable by criminal process, will, no doubt, give rise to a civil action for breach of statutory duty where the breach is of a provision designed to promote safety (see Groves v. Wimborne (Lord), [1898] 2 QO.B. 402; [1898] All E.R. Rep. 147; Brittanic Merthyr Coal Co., Lid. v. David, [1910] A.C. 74.and Black v. Fife Coal Co., Lid., [1912] A.C. 149), but as to whether a civil action will lie for breach of those provisions which appear to be de- signed to promote health or welfare, see the note “‘General effect of section’”’ tos. 4, post. The existence of a statutory duty does not necessarily relieve an employer of his common law duty of care (see Franklin v. Gramophone Co., Lid., [1948] 1 All E.R. 353; [1948] r K.B. 542, C.A.) although com- pliance with the statutory duty may render it difficult, if not impossible, to establish negligence (fer Somervell, L.J., at pp. 360 and 558, respectively). The existence of a statutory duty may, however, show that a particular risk ought to have been foreseen and so be relied upon to establish negligence (per Somervell, L.J., at pp. 360 and 558, respectively; N.C.B. v. England, [1954] r All E.R. 546, H.L.); but where the facts of the case are outside a statutory provision it is irrelevant to the question of negligence that they may be nearly within it (Chipchase v. British Titan Products Co., Lid., [1956] 1 All E.R. 613, C.A.). The Act, which is to come into operation on a day or days appointed by the Minister of Labour, extends, with modifications, to Scotland but not to Northern Ireland and is binding upon the Crown to the limited extent provided by s. 83. The premises to which the Act applies are offices, shops and railway premises as defined in s. r with the exceptions set out in ss. 2 and 3. By ss. 4-8 provision is made with regard to the cleanliness, overcrowd- ing, temperature, ventilation and lighting of premises within the Act, and ss. 9-15 require the provision of sanitary conveniences, washing facili- ties, drinking water, accommodation for clothing, and facilities for sitting and for eating. S. 16 lays down safety requirements for floors, stairs, steps, passages and gangways and s. 17 requires the fencing of dangerous machin- ery. The cleaning of machinery by young persons is regulated by s. 18 and s. 19 prohibits the working of dangerous machines by untrained persons. The Minister of Labour is empowered by s. 20 to make special regulations for securing safety and health and under s. 21 he may make special regula- tions to protect persons against noise or vibrations which may affect their health. Under s. 22 a magistrates’ court is given power to adjudicate upon