The United Kingdom mines and quarries regulation in 1910 was a specialised topic in UK labour law, given the complexity of the legislation and seriousness of injuries that people suffered.
Coal mines
The mode of progress to be recorded in the regulation of coal mines since 1872 can be contrasted in one aspect with the progress just recorded of factory legislation since 1878. Consolidation was again earlier adopted when large amendments were found necessary, with the result that by far the greater part of the law is to be found in the Coal Mines Regulation Act 1887 (50 & 51 Vict. c. 58), which repealed and re-enacted, with amendments, the Coal Mines Act 1872, the Coal Mines Act 1886, and the Stratified Ironstone Mines (Gunpowder) Act 1881. The act of 1881 was simply concerned with rules relating to the use of explosives underground. The Coal Mines Act 1886 dealt with three questions:
(a) The election and payment of checkweighers (i.e. the persons appointed and paid by miners in pursuance of section 13 of the Coal Mines Regulation Act 1887 for the purpose of taking a correct account on their behalf of the weight of the mineral gotten by them, and for the correct determination of certain deductions for which they may be liable); (b) provision for new powers of the secretary of state to direct a formal investigation of any explosion or accident, and its causes and circumstances, a provision which was later adopted in the law relating to factories; (c) provision enabling any relatives of persons whose death may have been caused by explosions or accidents in or about mines to attend in person, or by agent, coroners' inquests thereon, and to examine witnesses.
The Coal Mines Regulation Act 1887, which amended, strengthened and consolidated these acts and the earlier Coal Mines Act 1872, may also be contrasted in another aspect with the general acts of factory legislation. In scope it formed, as its principal forerunner had done, a general code; and in some measure it went farther in the way of consolidation than the Factory Acts had done, inasmuch as certain questions, which in factories are dealt with by statutes distinct from the Factory Acts, have been included in the Mines Regulation Acts, e.g. the prohibition of the payment of wages in public-houses, and the machinery relating to weights and measures whereby miners control their payment; further, partly from the less changing nature of the industry, but probably mainly from the power of expression gained for miners by their organisation, the code, so far as it went, at each stage answered apparently on the whole more nearly to the views and needs of the persons protected than the parallel law relating to factories. This was strikingly seen in the evidence before the Royal Commission on Labour in 1892-1894, where the repeated expression of satisfaction on the part of the miners with the provisions as distinct from the administration of the code (" with a few trifling exceptions ") is in marked contrast with the long and varied series of claims and contentions put forward for amendment of the Factory Acts.
Since the Coal Mines Regulation Act 1887, there have followed five minor acts, based on the recommendation of the officials acting under the acts, while two of them give effect to claims made by the miners before the Royal Commission on Labour. Thus the Coal Mines (Checkweigher) Act 1894 rendered it illegal for an employer ("owner, agent, or manager of any mine, or any person employed by or acting under the instructions of any such owner, agent, or manager") to make the removal of a particular checkweigher a condition of employment, or to exercise improper influence in the appointment of a checkweigher. The need for this provision was demonstrated by a decision of the Court of Session in Edinburgh, which upheld an employer in his claim to the right of dismissing all the workmen and re-engaging them on condition that they would dismiss a particular checkweigher. The Coal Mines Regulation Act 1896 (59 & 60 Vict. c. 43) extended the powers to propose, amend and modify special rules, provided for representation of workmen on arbitration under the principal act on any matter in difference, modified the provision for plans of mines in working and abandoned mines, amended three of the general rules (inspection before commencing work, use of safety lamps and non-inflammable substances for stemming), and empowered the secretary of state by order to prohibit or regulate the use of any explosive likely to become dangerous. The Mines (Prohibition of Child Labour Underground) Act 1900 (63 & 64 Vict. c. 21) raised the age of employment of boys underground from twelve to thirteen. The Coal Mines Regulation Act (1887) Amendment Act 1903 (3 Edw. 7. c. 7) allowed as an alternative qualification for a manager's certificate a diploma in scientific and mining training after at least two years' study at a university mining school or other educational institution approved by the secretary of state, coupled with practical experience of at least three years in a mine. In the same year, the Employment of Children Act 1903 affected children in mines to the extent already indicated in connexion with factories. The Coal Mines (Weighing of Minerals) Act 1905 improved some provisions relating to appointment and pay of checkweighers and facilities for them and their duly appointed deputies in carrying out their duties. The Notice of Accidents Act 1906 provided for improved annual returns of accidents and for immediate reporting to the district inspector of accidents under newly defined conditions as they arise in coal and metalliferous mines.
While the classes of mines regulated by the Coal Mines Regulation Act 1887 are the same as those regulated by the Coal Mines Act 1872 (i.e. mines of coal, of stratified ironstone, of shale and of fire-clay, including, works above ground where the minerals are prepared for use by screening, washing, &c.) the interpretation of the term " mine " is wider and simpler, including " every shaft in the course of being sunk, and every level and inclined plane in the course of being driven, and all the shafts, levels, planes, works, tramways and sidings, both below ground and above ground, in and adjacent to and belonging to the mine." Of the persons responsible under penalty for the observance of the acts the term "owner" is defined precisely as in the Coal Mines Act 1872, but the term "agent" is modified to mean "any person appointed as the representative of the owner in respect of any mine or any part thereof, and, as such, superior to a manager appointed in pursuance of this act." Of the persons protected, the term "young person" disappeared from the act, and "boy," i.e. "a male under the age of sixteen years," and "girl," i.e. "a female under the age of sixteen years," take their place, and the term "woman" means, as before, "a female of the age of sixteen years and upwards." The prohibition of employment underground of women and girls remains untouched, and the prohibition of employment underground of boys has been successively extended from boys of the age of ten in 1872 to boys of twelve in 1887 and to boys of thirteen in 1900. The age of employment of boys and girls above ground in connexion with any mine is raised from ten years in 1872 to twelve years since 1887. The hours of employment of a boy below ground may not exceed fifty-four in any one week, nor ten in any one day from the time of leaving the surface to the time of returning to the surface. Above ground any boy or girl under thirteen (and over twelve) may not be employed on more than six days in any one week; if employed on more than three days in one week, the daily total must not exceed six hours, or in any other case ten hours. Protected persons above thirteen are limited to the same daily and weekly total of hours as boys below ground, but there are further provisions with regard to intervals for meals and prohibiting employment for more than five hours without an interval of at least half an hour for a meal. Registers must be kept of all protected persons, whether employed above or below ground. Section 38 of the Public Health Act 1875 (38 & 39 Vict. c. 55), which requires separate and sufficient sanitary conveniences for persons of each sex, was first extended by the Coal Mines Regulation Act 1887 to the portions of mines above ground in which girls and women are employed; underground this matter is in metalliferous mines in Cornwall now provided for by special rules. Ventilation, the only other requirement in the acts that can be classed as sanitary, is provided for in every mine in the " general rules " which are aimed at securing safety of mines, and which, so far as ventilation is concerned, seek to dilute and render harmless noxious or inflammable gases. The provision which prohibits employment of any persons in mines not provided with at least two shafts is made much more stringent by the Coal Mines Regulation Act 1887 than in the previous code, by increasing the distance between the two shafts from 10 to 15 yards, and increasing the height of communications between them. Other provisions amended or strengthened are those relating to the following points:
(a) Daily personal supervision of the mine by the certificated manager; (b) classes of certificates and constitution of board for granting certificates of competency; (c) plan of workings of any mine to be kept up to a date not more than three months previously at the office of the mine; (d) notice to be given to the inspector of the district by the owner, agent or manager, of accidents in or about any mine which cause loss of life or serious personal injury, or are caused by explosion of coal or coal dust or any explosive or electricity or any other special cause that the secretary of state specifies by order, and which causes any personal injury to any person employed in or about the mine; it is provided that the place where an explosion or accident occurs causing loss of life or serious personal injury shall be left for inspection for at least three days, unless this would tend to increase or continue a danger or impede working of the mine: this was new in the Coal Mines Regulation Act 1887; (e) notice to be given of opening and abandonment of any mine: this was extended to the opening or abandonment of any seam; (f) plan of an abandoned mine or seam to be sent within three months; (g) formal investigation of any explosion or accident by direction of the secretary of state: this provision, first introduced by the Coal Mines Act 1886 was modified in the Coal Mines Regulation Act 1887 to admit the appointment by the secretary of state of "any competent person" to hold the investigation, whereas under the earlier section only an inspector could be appointed.