The Police, Factories, & c. (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1916 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It had numerous provisions including in particular occupational health and safety, with special focus on regulations for factories and coalmines. It also enacted rules for the regulation of street trading and street collections. [1]
Although the act has been substantially amended from its initial passage in 1916, with many parts repealed by subsequent legislation, the parts of the act relating to street collections are still in force in the UK. In July 2025, directors of the company We R Blighty pled guilty to offences under the act. [2]
At the time of the passage of the act, the whole of Ireland was part of the United Kingdom, and the act was adopted into the statute law of the Republic of Ireland as part of Irish independence. The act remained part of Irish statute law until 1983, when it was repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 1983. [3]