Housing (Scotland) Act 1987

315 Byelaws with respect to accommodation for seasonal workers. S

(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, a local authority shall make byelaws for the whole or any part of their area with a view to providing proper accommodation for seasonal workers in respect of—

(a) intimation to the local authority of the intention to employ seasonal workers;

(b) the nature and extent of the accommodation to be provided for such workers, including due provision for—

(i) sleeping accommodation and separation of the sexes;

(ii) lighting, ventilation, cubic space, cleanliness and furnishing, including beds and bedding and cooking utensils;

(iii) storage of food, washing of clothes and drying of wet clothes;

(iv) water closets or privies for the separate use of the sexes; and

(v) a suitable supply of water;

(c) determining the persons responsible for the provision of the accommodation required by the byelaws, taking into account the terms of current contracts;

(d) inspection of the premises;

(e) exhibition on the premises of the byelaws;

(f) such other matters relating to the accommodation of seasonal workers (including determining the persons responsible for regulating the use by the workers of the accommodation) as may from time to time be prescribed.

(2) If the local authority show to the satisfaction of the Secretary of State that it is unnecessary to make bylaws under this section, the Secretary of State may dispense with the making of such byelaws.

(3) The Secretary of State may suspend, as respects the area of any local authority or any part of that area, the operation of any byelaw made under this section which affects agricultural interests in cases of emergency.

(4) If in consequence of any byelaws made under this section a farmer or a fruit grower is required to provide accommodation involving the erection of additional buildings, he may require the landlord to erect such buildings on terms and conditions to be determined, failing agreement, by the Secretary of State.

(5) In this section the expression “seasonal workers” includes navvies, harvesters, potato-workers, fruit-pickers, herring-gutters, and such other workers engaged in work of a temporary nature as may from time to time be prescribed.

(6) Where a local authority fail, within such period as the Secretary of State may allow, to make in respect of any of the matters specified in subsection (1) byelaws which are in the opinion of the Secretary of State sufficient and satisfactory, the Secretary of State may himself make such byelaws which shall have force and effect as if they had been made by the authority and confirmed.