Legislation

• 1832 Representation of the People Act


  Made adjustments to the distribution of seats, allowing for greater representation from the Midlands and North
• 1835 Municipal Corporations Act


  Ended the system of 'closed' corporations and allowed councils to take control of sewerage and drainage if they had a private Act of Parliament
• 1846 Nuisance Removal Act


  Allowed justices to prosecute people responsible for 'nuisances
• 1846 Baths and Washhouses Act


  Enabled local authorities to provide baths and washhouses out of public money
• 1847 Towns Improvement Clauses Act


  Defined the rights of towns to lay water supplies and drainage schemes, and to control nuisances
• 1848 Public Health Act


  Set up a General Board of Health, and allowed select authorities to set up local boards of health. Permissive
• 1858 Local Government Act


  Worked with 1858 Public Health Act to abolish General Board of Health and replace it with a new Local Government Act Office
• 1858 Public Health Act


  Worked with 1858 Local Government Act to abolish General Board of Health and replace it with a new Local Government Act Office
• 1866 Sanitary Act


  Made local authorities responsible for 'nuisances' and expanded the powers given under the 1848 Public Health Act
• 1867 Parliamentary Reform Act


  Extended voting qualification
• 1875 Public Health Act


  Established that every part of the country should have a public health authority with a medical officer and a sanitary inspector
• 1936 Public Health Act


  Consolidated previous legislation
• 1938 Food and Drugs Act


  Expanded the 1936 Public Health Act to give local authorities responsibility over slaughterhouses and food adulteration
• 1855 Nuisance Removal Act


  Allowed local authorities to combat overcrowding as a nuisance
• 1868 Artisans' and Labourers' Dwellings Act


  Gave local councils power to force landlords to repair insanitary houses
• 1875 Artisans' and Labourers' Dwellings Improvement Act


  Gave local councils the power to clear entire districts
• 1919 Housing Act


  Allowed subsidies to be given to local councils and builders to build affordable housing
• 1840 permissive Vaccination Act


  Allowed anyone to be vaccinated free of charge
• 1853 compulsory Vaccination Act


  Made it obligatory for parents to have their children vaccinated for smallpox
• 1871 compulsory Vaccination Act


  Increased punishments for people not vaccinating their children
• 1888 Local Government Act


  Said that all medical offers of health in districts with a large population had to be qualified doctors
• 1906 Education (Provision of Meals) Act


  Gave free school meals to children from low-income families
• 1907 Education (Administrative Provisions) Act 1907


  Set up a school medical service
• 1908 Children and Young Persons' Act


  Made children 'protected persons' and prevented them from buying things like cigarettes
• 1858 Metropolis Local Management Amendment Act


  Allowed the Metropolitan Board of Works to improve the drainage of London
• 1795 Removal Act


  Prevented strangers being removed from parishes until they applied for relief
• 1782 Gilbert's Act


  Allowed parishes to combine into Poor Law unions to build workhouses, from which the able-bodied poor were excluded
• 1818 Sturges-Bourne Act


  Stated how voting should be managed when electing men to parish select vestries
• 1819 Sturges-Bourne Act


  Added a resident clergyman to the vestry
• 1815 Corn Laws


  Did not allow the import of foreign corn until the price of British corn increased sufficiently
• 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act


  Set up Poor Law Commission and discouraged outdoor relief
• 1844 General Outdoor Relief Prohibitory Order


  Banned outdoor relief
• 1870 Education Act


  Placed the education of pauper system into the elementary school system
• 1838 General Prohibitory Order


  Allowed unions in Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire to provide relief according to the 1601 Elizabethan Poor Law
• 1863 Public Works Act


  Allowed local authorities to borrow money to set up schemes to employ paupers
• 1848 Poor Law (Schools) Act


  Allowed Poor Law unions to combine to provide district schools
• 1865 Union Chargeability Act


  Placed financial burden of relief on entire union
• 1909 Old Age Pensions Act


  Provided pensions through taxes
• 1909 Labour Exchanges Act


  Set up labour exchanges that were intended to help the unemployed find work
• 1909 Trade Boards Act


  Allowed 'sweated trades' to legally enforce a minimum wage