accident. The same machinery is designated in the Trade Boards Act, 1909, for the extension or curtailment of the scope of the Act. In the Workmen's Compensation Act a Secretary of State (in practice the Home Secretary) is given a general power to make these Provisional Orders subject to the conditions (a) that no such Order is to have effect unless and until it is confirmed by Parliament, and (b) that if, while the confirming Bill is pending in either House of Parliament, a petition is presented against the Order, the Bill may be referred to a Select Committee, and the petitioner shall be allowed to appear and oppose as in the case of Private Bills. These Select Committees act as a judicial tribunal, before whom witnesses are examined and Counsel appear. The Home Secretary has made Provisional Orders under this power scheduling about twenty fresh diseases. Under the Trade Boards Act the Board of Trade may make a Provisional Order applying the Act to any specified trade to which it does not at the time apply if it is satisfied that the rate of wages prevailing in any branch of the trade is exceptionally low as compared with that in other employments, and that the other circumstances of the trade are such as to render the application of the Act to the trade expedient; also, if at any time the Board of Trade considers that the conditions of employment in any trade to which the Act applies have been so altered as to render the application of the Act to the trade unnecessary, it may make a Provisional Order that the Act shall cease to apply to that trade. The conditions mentioned above as to confirmation by Parliament, and as to reference to a Select Committee in the event of the presentation of a petition against the Order, apply with this exception, that the Order may be referred either to a Select Committee or to a Joint Committee of both Houses. The Board of Trade has already made one Provisional Order under the Trade Boards Act, and scheduled five additional trades, including part of the trade of carrying on a laundry. Certain employers in the laundry trade petitioned against the Order, and at the hearing before a Select Committee of the House of Commons they made good their objection that the definition of the section proposed to be included was not workable, and the Select Committee thereupon omitted laundries from the Order. The other four trades were not petitioned against, and after evidence had been submitted on behalf of the Board of Trade the Select Committee passed so much of the Order as applied to them, and in due course the Order as amended was confirmed. (B) LEGISLATION BY STATUTORY ORDERS I. Statutory Orders made without Public Inquiry.-A very early example of the use of Statutory Orders in industrial legislation occurred in 1867, when the Factory Extension Act and the Workshop Regulation Act were passed. The division of work between Parliament and a Secretary of State which then ensued has varied from time to time,1 and is now to be found, so far as regards factory legislation, in the Factory Act, 1901, Section 126. Much the same arrangements have been adopted in other pieces of industrial legislation. As regards factory legislation, the main provisions as to Orders, known as Special Orders, are as follows: (a) The Order is made by a Secretary of State (in practice the Home Secretary), and is published in such manner as he thinks best adapted for the information of all persons concerned, and comes into operation at the date of its publication or at any later date mentioned in the Order. It is usual to allow a few weeks between the date of publication and the date at which the Order is to take effect. (b) The Order is to be laid as soon as may be before both Houses of Parliament, and if either House of Parliament within the next forty days after the Order has been so laid before that House resolves that the Order ought to be annulled, it has after the date of the resolution no effect, but without prejudice to the validity of anything done in the meantime under the Order. (c) The Order is to apply as if it formed part of the enactment which provides for the making of the Order. 1 See Appendix A to Hutchins and Harrison's History of Factory Legislation. The power to make Orders is relevant to 45 sections of the Factory Act, and has been exercised in regard to 33 of those sections (Appendix VI., etc.). They are of varying importance. The Order extending the Particulars Clause (Section 116) is a good example of the wide effect of some of these Orders. Under the Truck Act, 1896, Section 9, a Secretary of State may by Order grant exemptions from the provisions of the Act. Provision (b) given above applies to these Orders. This power has only once been exercised, namely, in respect of persons engaged in the weaving of cotton in certain counties. The Notice of Accidents Act, 1906, contains a power of extension by Order of a Secretary of State, and this has been used to add three fresh classes of accidents. Both parts of the National Insurance Act, 1911, rely very largely on power to make Statutory Orders. For instance, in Part I. of the Act, Section 66 provides that the Insurance Commissioners may make "Regulations." These Regulations follow closely, but not exactly, the provisions as to "Special Orders" laid down in the Factory Act. Unfortunately in the Factory Act the term "Regulations is used for a Statutory Order made after a preliminary public inquiry, which falls into our second class. Section 66 provides that the Insurance Commissioners may make Regulations for any of the purposes for which Regulations may be made under Part I. of the Act or the Schedules therein referred to, or for prescribing anything which under Part I. or the Schedules is to be prescribed, and generally for carrying Part I. into effect, and any Regulations so made are to be laid before both Houses of Parliament as soon as may be after they are made, and shall have effect as if enacted in the Act, provided that, if an address is presented to His Majesty by either House of Parliament within the next subsequent twenty-one days after any such Regulation is laid before it, praying that the Regulation may be annulled, His Majesty in Council may annul the Regulation, and it shall thenceforth be void, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder. This language is substantially different from that employed in the Factory Act, and apparently the intention. is to give a Liberal Government the power to disregard an address of the House of Lords. Over one hundred matters are specifically left to be dealt with by Regulations. The National Insurance Act, 1913, adds considerably to the list. As examples of the use of these very wide powers may be mentioned the new provisions as to contributors in arrears which have been substituted for the 5th Schedule to the Act of 1911, and the adoption of a unit of work for outworkers in the place of a weekly wage as the basis of contributions. Part II. of the National Insurance Act, 1911, adopts a similar procedure, but follows the Factory Act. Under Section 91 the Board of Trade has power to make' Regulations' for the administration of the unemployment part of the Act. These Regulations must be presented to Parliament, and are liable to be disannulled in the same way as Special Orders under the Factory Act. Some twenty pages of Regulations have been made by the Board of Trade under the Act of 1911, and about two pages under the Amending Act of 1914. II. Statutory Orders made after Public Inquiry.—Under the Factory Act, 1901, these Statutory Orders are called Regulations,' and they are confined to legislation in regard to' dangerous trades.' The first step in the making of these Regulations is for a Secretary of State (in practice the Home Secretary) to certify that the manufacture, machinery, plant, process, or description of manual labour proposed to be regulated is dangerous. He then proceeds to prepare draft Regulations and to publish notice of his proposal to make Regulations. He must allow at least twenty-one days, within which persons affected may get copies of the draft Regulations and may lodge objections. If any substantial objections are lodged the Secretary of State must either amend the draft Regulations or direct an inquiry to be held by some competent person, who shall report to him thereon. In other words, he must either obtain the consent of the objector to a new form of Regulation or he must direct an inquiry to be held. This inquiry is to be held in public, and a may be attended by the chief factory inspector, objectors, and other affected persons (Sections 80 and 81). After the Secretary of State receives the report of the inquiry he can then make Regulations which take effect as Statutory Orders, that is, they must be laid before both Houses of Parliament, and either House can, within forty days, by resolution disannul all or any of the Regulations (Section 84). These Regulations have considerable scope, as they may, among other things, prohibit the employment of, or modify or limit the period of employment of, all persons or any class of persons in the regulated trade, or may prohibit, limit, or control the use of any material or process (Section 83). Thus in Regulations made in 1907 for the manufacture of paints and colours, the 3rd Regulation prohibits any woman, young person, or child from being employed in manipulating lead colour. For the most part these Regulations are concerned with the means whereby the danger' may be either eliminated altogether or substantially reduced, e.g. by air space, ventilation, exhaust drafts, use of overalls, lavatories, etc., etc. The only other Act we need notice which adopts the process of inquiry as part of the machinery of making a Statutory Order is the National Insurance Act, 1911. The Orders so made are called in the Act 'Special Orders.' Section 113 of the Insurance Act incorporates for this purpose Sections 80 and 81 of the Factory Act (which regulate the holding of inquiries), with certain adaptations, which are shown in the 9th Schedule to the Insurance Act. The only variation in substance is the requirement that the person to hold the inquiry shall be 'impartial' as well as competent.' These Special Orders do not, however, come into force as soon as made or from an appointed date. |