If the accident arises from special causes defined as machinery moved by power, boiler explosions, escape of gas or steam, or use of hot liquid or molten metal, the casualty has to be reported to a Certifying Surgeon as well as to the Inspector.
It is also provided that if any notice required by Section 19 as to an accident in a factory or workshop is not sent to the local inspector, the occupier of the factory or workshop shall be liable to a fine not exceeding £5.
Thus, under the Factory and Workshop Act, an accident is not always a reportable accident. One worker may meet with a trivial accident which, though he is able to continue work, prevents him from doing his ordinary work for, say, the next six hours only after the accident. This would be a reportable accident. A second worker may meet with an accident which, though it does not prevent him from continuing his ordinary work for five hours on "any one of the three working days next after the occurrence of the accident," may afterwards develop into a permanent partial disablement, so that for weeks, or even months, he may be unable to do any work. This accident would not be "reportable" under the Factory Act.
But there is a more important reason why the official records of accidents are incomplete. It lies in the fact that the administration of the Factory and Workshop Act by the Home Office is lax, and the staff of men and women inspectors ridiculously inadequate. The number of factories and workshops under inspection in 1908 was as follows:
FACTORIES, WORKSHOPS, ETC.,
UNDER INSPECTION, 1908
| Class of Works. | Number of Works. |
| Factories | 110,691 |
| Workshops | 149,398 |
| 260,089 |
The staff of inspectors and assistant inspectors in 1908 was stated officially to be of an authorized strength of 200. This is an improvement upon the 152 recorded in "Riches and Poverty," edition 1905, p. 115, but it cannot be termed adequate. If we imagine the 260,000 registered workplaces divided equally amongst the staff we see that each inspector has to deal, on the average, with 1,300 workplaces. If, then, each registered workplace were inspected only once in each year, each inspector would need to inspect 32 factories or workshops per week. As this is a physical impossibility, it is clear that each registered workplace is not called upon even once in each year.
Whether an employer does or does not report a reportable accident largely depends upon the vigilance of the local inspector, and as it is physically impossible for a few inspectors to be vigilant in regard to many employers there can be no question that an exceedingly large number of accidents go unreported. No reflection is made here upon the inspectors themselves; it is simply pointed out that, however devoted they may be, they cannot properly carry out the work which needs to be done.
The Factory Report for 1908 (Cd. 4664) enables us to make the following comparison with the 1903 figures given in "Riches and Poverty" (1905 edition).
CASUALTIES IN FACTORIES
AND WORKSHOPS, 1903-8