Factories Act 1961

176 General interpretationE+W

(1)In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, the following expressions have the meanings hereby assigned to them respectively, that is to say:—

• “bakehouse” means any place in which bread, biscuits or confectionery is or are baked by way of trade or for purposes of gain;

• . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F1

• “bodily injury” includes injury to health;

• “building operation” means the construction, structural alteration, repair or maintenance of a building (including re-pointing, re-decoration and external cleaning of the structure), the demolition of a building, and the preparation for, and laying the foundation of, an intended building, but does not include any operation which is a work of engineering construction within the meaning of this Act;

• “calendar year” means the period of twelve months beginning with the first day of January in any year;

• . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F2

• “child” means any person who is not for the purposes of the M1Education Act 1944 M2, over compulsory school age (or for the purposes of the Education (Scotland) Act [F31980] over school age);

• “class or description”, in relation to factories, includes a group of factories described by reference to locality;

• “contravention” includes, in relation to any provision, a failure to comply with that provision, and the expression “contravene” shall be construed accordingly;

• “cotton cloth factory” means any room, shed or workshop, or part thereof, in which the weaving of cotton cloth is carried on;

• . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F4

• “district council” means, as respects England and Wales, the council of a . . . F5 district, and, as respects Scotland [F6an islands or a district council];

• “driving-belt” includes any driving strap or rope;

• “fume” includes gas or vapour;

• “general register” means the register kept in accordance with the requirements of section one hundred and forty of this Act;

• “humid factory” means a factory in which atmospheric humidity is artificially produced by steaming or other means in connection with any textile process;

• [F7“inspector” means an inspector appointed by the Health and Safety Executive under section 19 of the M3Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and references in any provision of this Act to the inspector for the district, the superintending inspector for the division or the chief inspector are references to an inspector so appointed for the purposes of that provision];

• “machinery” includes any driving-belt;

• “magistrates’ court” has the same meaning as in [F8the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980];

• “maintained” means maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order, and in good repair;

• “the Minister” means [F9the Secretary of State];

• “owner”—

  (a)

  as respects England and Wales, means the person for the time being receiving the rackrent of the premises in connection with which the word is used, whether on his own account or as agent or trustee for another person, or who would so receive the rackrent if the premises were let at a rackrent; and

  (b)

  as respects Scotland, means the person for the time entitled to receive or who would, if the same were let, be entitled to receive, the rents of the premises, and includes a trustee, factor, tutor or curator, and in the case of public or municipal property, applies to the persons to whom the management thereof is entrusted;

• “parent” means a parent [F10of a child or young person or any person who is not a parent of his but who has parental responsibility for him (within the meaning of the Children Act 1989)], and includes, in relation to any child or young person, any person having direct benefit from his wages;

• “period of employment” means the period (inclusive of the time allowed for meals and rest) within which persons may be employed on any day;

• “prescribed” means prescribed by order of the Minister;

• “prime mover” means every engine, motor or other appliance which provides mechanical energy derived from steam, water, wind, electricity, the combustion of fuel or other source;

• “process” includes the use of any locomotive;

• “railway” means any railway used for the purposes of public traffic whether passenger, goods, or other traffic and includes any works of the railway company connected with the railway;

• “railway company” includes . . . F11 a company or person working a railway under lease or otherwise;

• “sanitary conveniences” includes urinals, water-closets, earthclosets, privies, ashpits, and any similar convenience;

• . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F2

• “ship”, “vessel”, and “harbour” have the same meanings as in the M4Merchant Shipping Act 1894;

• “tenement factory” means any premises where mechanical power from any prime mover within the close or curtilage of the premises is distributed for use in manufacturing processes to different parts of the same premises occupied by different persons in such manner that those parts constitute in law separate factories;

• “tramway” means a tramway authorised by or under any Act of Parliament and used for the purpose of public traffic;

• “transmission machinery” means every shaft, wheel, drum, pulley, system of fast and loose pulleys, coupling, clutch, driving-belt or other device by which the motion of a prime mover is transmitted to or received by any machine or appliance;

• “week” means the period between midnight on Saturday night and midnight on the succeeding Saturday night;

• “woman” means a woman who has attained the age of eighteen;

• “work of engineering construction” means the construction of any railway line or siding otherwise than upon an existing railway, and the construction, structural alteration or repair (including re-pointing and re-painting) or the demolition of any dock, harbour, inland navigation, tunnel, bridge, viaduct, waterworks, reservoir, pipe-line, aqueduct, sewer, sewage works, or gasholder, except where carried on upon a railway or tramway, and includes such other works as may be specified by regulations of the Minister;

• “young person” means a person who has ceased to be a child but has not attained the age of eighteen.

(2)For the purposes of this Act, machinery or plant shall be deemed to have been constructed or reconstructed, and a factory or building to have been constructed, reconstructed, extended, added to, or converted for use as a factory, before any date, if the construction, reconstruction, extension, addition, or conversion was begun before that date.

(3)For the purposes of this Act, a factory shall not be deemed to be a factory in which mechanical power is used by reason only that mechanical power is used for the purpose of heating, ventilating or lighting the workrooms or other parts of the factory.

(4)A woman, young person, or child who works in a factory, whether for wages or not, either in a process or in cleaning any part of the factory used for any process, or in cleaning or oiling any part of the machinery or plant, or in any other kind of work whatsoever incidental to or connected with the process, or connected with the article made or otherwise the subject of the process therein, shall, save as is otherwise provided by this Act, be deemed to be employed therein for the purposes of this Act or of any proceedings thereunder, . . . F12.

(5)A young person who works in a factory, whether for wages or not, in collecting, carrying or delivering goods, carrying messages or running errands shall be deemed to be employed in the factory for the purposes of this Act or of any proceedings thereunder, but the provisions of Part VI of this Act shall not apply, except as expressly provided, to any such young person who is employed mainly outside the factory.

(6)For the purposes of this Act, employment shall be deemed to be continuous unless interrupted by an interval of at least half an hour.

(7)For the purposes of this Act, an apprentice shall be deemed to be a person employed.

(8)This Act shall in its application to London have effect as if for references to district councils there were substituted, as respects the City of London references to the common council, . . . F13

(9)References in this Act to any enactment shall be construed as references to that enactment as amended by any subsequent enactment, including this Act.

176 General interpretationS

(1)In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, the following expressions have the meanings hereby assigned to them respectively, that is to say:—

• “bakehouse” means any place in which bread, biscuits or confectionery is or are baked by way of trade or for purposes of gain;

• . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F14

• “bodily injury” includes injury to health;

• “building operation” means the construction, structural alteration, repair or maintenance of a building (including re-pointing, re-decoration and external cleaning of the structure), the demolition of a building, and the preparation for, and laying the foundation of, an intended building, but does not include any operation which is a work of engineering construction within the meaning of this Act;

• “calendar year” means the period of twelve months beginning with the first day of January in any year;

• . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F15

• “child” means any person who is not for the purposes of the M5Education Act 1944 M6, over compulsory school age (or for the purposes of the Education (Scotland) Act [F161980] over school age);

• “class or description”, in relation to factories, includes a group of factories described by reference to locality;

• “contravention” includes, in relation to any provision, a failure to comply with that provision, and the expression “contravene” shall be construed accordingly;

• “cotton cloth factory” means any room, shed or workshop, or part thereof, in which the weaving of cotton cloth is carried on;

• . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F17

• “district council” means, as respects England and Wales, the council of a . . . F18 district, and, as respects Scotland [F19an islands or a district council];

• “driving-belt” includes any driving strap or rope;

• “fume” includes gas or vapour;

• “general register” means the register kept in accordance with the requirements of section one hundred and forty of this Act;

• “humid factory” means a factory in which atmospheric humidity is artificially produced by steaming or other means in connection with any textile process;

• [F20“inspector” means an inspector appointed by the Health and Safety Executive under section 19 of the M7Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and references in any provision of this Act to the inspector for the district, the superintending inspector for the division or the chief inspector are references to an inspector so appointed for the purposes of that provision];

• “machinery” includes any driving-belt;

• “magistrates’ court” has the same meaning as in [F21the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980];

• “maintained” means maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order, and in good repair;

• “the Minister” means [F22the Secretary of State];

• “owner”—

  (a)

  as respects England and Wales, means the person for the time being receiving the rackrent of the premises in connection with which the word is used, whether on his own account or as agent or trustee for another person, or who would so receive the rackrent if the premises were let at a rackrent; and

  (b)

  as respects Scotland, means the person for the time entitled to receive or who would, if the same were let, be entitled to receive, the rents of the premises, and includes a trustee, factor, tutor or curator, and in the case of public or municipal property, applies to the persons to whom the management thereof is entrusted;

• “parent” means a parent or guardian of, or person having the legal custody of, or the control over, a child or young person, and includes, in relation to any child or young person, any person having direct benefit from his wages;

• “period of employment” means the period (inclusive of the time allowed for meals and rest) within which persons may be employed on any day;

• “prescribed” means prescribed by order of the Minister;

• “prime mover” means every engine, motor or other appliance which provides mechanical energy derived from steam, water, wind, electricity, the combustion of fuel or other source;

• “process” includes the use of any locomotive;

• “railway” means any railway used for the purposes of public traffic whether passenger, goods, or other traffic and includes any works of the railway company connected with the railway;

• “railway company” includes . . . F23 a company or person working a railway under lease or otherwise;

• “sanitary conveniences” includes urinals, water-closets, earthclosets, privies, ashpits, and any similar convenience;

• . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F15

• “ship”, “vessel”, and “harbour” have the same meanings as in the M8Merchant Shipping Act 1894;

• “tenement factory” means any premises where mechanical power from any prime mover within the close or curtilage of the premises is distributed for use in manufacturing processes to different parts of the same premises occupied by different persons in such manner that those parts constitute in law separate factories;

• “tramway” means a tramway authorised by or under any Act of Parliament and used for the purpose of public traffic;

• “transmission machinery” means every shaft, wheel, drum, pulley, system of fast and loose pulleys, coupling, clutch, driving-belt or other device by which the motion of a prime mover is transmitted to or received by any machine or appliance;

• “week” means the period between midnight on Saturday night and midnight on the succeeding Saturday night;

• “woman” means a woman who has attained the age of eighteen;

• “work of engineering construction” means the construction of any railway line or siding otherwise than upon an existing railway, and the construction, structural alteration or repair (including re-pointing and re-painting) or the demolition of any dock, harbour, inland navigation, tunnel, bridge, viaduct, waterworks, reservoir, pipe-line, aqueduct, sewer, sewage works, or gasholder, except where carried on upon a railway or tramway, and includes such other works as may be specified by regulations of the Minister;

• “young person” means a person who has ceased to be a child but has not attained the age of eighteen.

(2)For the purposes of this Act, machinery or plant shall be deemed to have been constructed or reconstructed, and a factory or building to have been constructed, reconstructed, extended, added to, or converted for use as a factory, before any date, if the construction, reconstruction, extension, addition, or conversion was begun before that date.

(3)For the purposes of this Act, a factory shall not be deemed to be a factory in which mechanical power is used by reason only that mechanical power is used for the purpose of heating, ventilating or lighting the workrooms or other parts of the factory.

(4)A woman, young person, or child who works in a factory, whether for wages or not, either in a process or in cleaning any part of the factory used for any process, or in cleaning or oiling any part of the machinery or plant, or in any other kind of work whatsoever incidental to or connected with the process, or connected with the article made or otherwise the subject of the process therein, shall, save as is otherwise provided by this Act, be deemed to be employed therein for the purposes of this Act or of any proceedings thereunder, . . . F24.

(5)A young person who works in a factory, whether for wages or not, in collecting, carrying or delivering goods, carrying messages or running errands shall be deemed to be employed in the factory for the purposes of this Act or of any proceedings thereunder, but the provisions of Part VI of this Act shall not apply, except as expressly provided,to any such young person who is employed mainly outside the factory.

(6)For the purposes of this Act, employment shall be deemed to be continuous unless interrupted by an interval of at least half an hour.

(7)For the purposes of this Act, an apprentice shall be deemed to be a person employed.

(8)This Act shall in its application to London have effect as if for references to district councils there were substituted, as respects the City of London references to the common council, . . . F25

(9)References in this Act to any enactment shall be construed as references to that enactment as amended by any subsequent enactment, including this Act.