This piece of legislation, was the first effective Factory Act to be passed. Two pieces of factory legislation had been passed earlier: the 1802 Health and Morals of Apprentices Act and the 1819 Cotton Mills Act but neither of them had had much effect.
- . . . no person under eighteen years of age shall [work] between half-past eight in the evening and half-past five in the morning, in any cotton, woollen, worsted, hemp, flax, tow, linen or silk mill . . .
- . . . no person under the age of eighteen shall be employed in any such mill . . . more than twelve hours in . . . one day, nor more than sixty-nine hours in . . . one week . . .
- There shall be allowed . . . not less than one and a half hours for meals.
- It shall not be lawful . . . to employ in any factory . . . as aforesaid, except in mills for the manufacture of silk, any child who shall not have completed his or her ninth year.
- It shall not be lawful for any person to employ . . . in any factory . . . as aforesaid for longer than forty-eight hours in one week, nor for longer than nine hours in one day, any child who shall not have completed his or her eleventh year . . .
- It shall be lawful for His Majesty to appoint four Inspectors of factories where . . . children and young persons under eighteen years of age [are] employed, empowered to enter any . . . mill, and any school . . . belonging thereto, at all times . . . by day or by night, when such . . . factories are at work.
- The Inspectors shall have power to make such rules as may be necessary for the execution of this act, binding on all persons subject to the provisions of this act; and are authorised to enforce the attendance at school of children employed in factories according to the provisions of this act.
- Every child restricted to the performance of forty-eight hours of labour in any one week shall attend some school.
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Created 2000
Last modified 19 June 2018