Catalogue description Records of the Explosives Inspectorate, Factory Inspectorate, Health and Safety Executive, and related departments

Prior to the Second World War, the Home Office had primary responsibility for safety, health and welfare, including factory legislation and explosives. In June 1940, the Ministry of Labour and National Service took over the administration of the Factory Acts, although the Explosives Inspectorate, which had been created in 1875, remained the responsibility of the Home Office.

In the Ministry of Labour and National Service, a Factory and Welfare Department was created at headquarters to supervise the work of the Factory Inspectorate and the work of the new 'outside' welfare organisation. The Factory Inspectorate continued its long standing work of enforcing statutory requirements relating to working conditions in close co-operation with the welfare departments at headquarters. The work of the Inspectorate was largely regulatory and executive, with responsibility for policy and research resting with headquarters. The Inspectorate continued to monitor conditions of work inside factories; the latter, through the medium of regional and local welfare officers, handled welfare problems which were found outside the factory gates. These included, primarily, housing and recreational facilities for war workers. Special attention was given to women and young people working in munitions. A Factory and Welfare Advisory Board provided expert guidance on these questions. In 1941 a National Service Hostels Corporation was set up to run hostels for transferred workers living away from home; this received a grant from the ministry.

At the end of the War, this transfer of functions (which had been considered a temporary expedient) was made permanent. Official concern for external welfare diminished. In 1946 the Factory and Welfare Department was renamed the Safety, Health and Welfare Department. Its activities were redefined under the 1948 Factories Act. The Department continued to encourage voluntary improvements by fostering voluntary co-operation between employers and unions over a wide range of issues, including working hours, special provisions for women and juveniles, safeguards against accidents, reductions in risks of industrial disease, and the employment of medical personnel in the workplace. In 1946, the ministry also took over responsibility for the Government Wool Disinfecting Station, originally established by the Home Office in 1918. The Station's work encompassed the disinfection of wool and hair imports which were liable to official controls under the Anthrax Prevention Act 1919. The Department also maintained close liaison with other government departments concerned with employment in sectors not covered by the Factory Acts, such as agriculture, coal mining and office employment, as well as with official research establishments, including the Medical Research Council and the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. To assist in the determination of standards in working conditions, hygiene and diet, the Industrial Health Advisory Committee was reconstituted in 1954.

The Department continued to have responsibility for the Factory Inspectorate, which by the late 1950s was some 400 strong, working in 97 districts under 14 regional divisions. It also contained three specialist divisions: a medical branch, an electrical branch and an engineering and chemical branch, each employing suitably qualified professionals.

In 1968, the Safety, Health and Welfare Department transferred to the new Department of Employment and Productivity, with only an alteration of its title from Department to Division, and one major change concerning the Factory Inspectorate's Medical Branch which became a division in its own right in 1968, re-titling itself as Medical Services Division.

The Safety, Health and Welfare Division (SHWD) dealt with safety in industry, industrial health and welfare, and supervised the operation of the Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Acts. It was also responsible for the Government Wool Disinfecting Station, and provided the secretariat for the Committee on Safety and Health at Work (Robens Committee). SHWD was divided into a headquarters policy section and a major operational portion composed of the Factory Inspectorate which additionally oversaw the work of four subsidiary branches: Electrical, Engineering, Civil Engineering, and Chemical. A fifth branch, Construction, had a brief independence, but was quickly subsumed in Civil Engineering Branch. The Factory Inspectorate also had responsibility for the Industrial Health and Safety Centre.

In 1972 SHWD was reorganised as the Directorate of Occupational Safety and Health. It re-absorbed the Medical Services Division (MSD), and operated through a new Factory Inspectorate Division (FID) and MSD.

FID comprised the former Factory Inspectorate, but its branches were reorganised into five different subject areas:

• the first was concerned with organisation, staffing and training of inspectors, metrication, and the operation of the Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Acts; it also supervised the work of the Industrial Health and Safety Centre;
• the second dealt with safety matters in construction, shipbuilding and docks, and international safety and health issues;
• the third covered general consultation on occupational safety, concentrating on mechanical safety, accident prevention and statistics, and supervised the work of the Accident Prevention Studies Unit;
• the fourth covered flammable and explosive substances, electricity, major industrial hazards and special investigations;
• the fifth was concerned with environmental and industrial health and hygiene, including radiation hazards and noise.

FID provided continued secretariat support for the Robens Committee on Safety and Health at Work.

This 1972 re-organisation was a prelude to the creation of the Health and Safety Commission and Executive in 1974. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inherited the inspectorates of a number of government departments, including the Factory Inspectorate from the Department of Employment, and the Explosives Inspectorate from the Home Office.