1870: 33 & 34 Victoria c.18: An Act to provide for the equal distribution over the Metropolis of a further portion of the charge for the Relief of the Poor.

[20th June 1870.]

BE it enacted by the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

[Maintenance of indoor poor to be a charge upon the Metropolitan Common Poor Fund.]

1. From and after the twenty-ninth day of September one thousand eight hundred and seventy the provisions of the sixty-ninth section of the Metropolitan Poor Act, 1867, directing the repayment of the expenses incurred for the maintenance of lunatics and insane poor, and of patients in any asylum specially provided under that Act for patients suffering from fever and small pox, shall extend to the expenses incurred for the maintenance of paupers in any other asylum now or hereafter to be provided under the said Act, and to the maintenance of paupers above the age of sixteen years in any workhouse in the Metropolis, and the Poor Law Board shall, by its precept under seal, direct the Receiver of the Common Poor Fund to repay such expenses out of that fund, in the same manner as the expenses specified in that section, subject, nevertheless, to the following provisions:—

(1.) The Poor Law Board shall certify the maximum number of paupers to be maintained in any work-house or asylum.

(2.) No repayment shall be made in respect of a greater number of paupers maintained in any asylum on any one day than will complete the maximum number which such asylum shall have been certified to hold as aforesaid, nor in respect of a greater number of paupers maintained in any workhouse on any one day than will, together with the children under the age of sixteen, if any, maintained therein on the same day, complete the maximum number certified for such workhouse.

(3.) The amount so repaid in respect of such maintenance shall be at the rate of fivepence per day for each pauper in such workhouse or asylum.

(4.) If the guardians of any union or parish, or the managers of any asylum, shall, during any half year ending at Lady Day or Michaelmas respectively, have refused or neglected to comply with any Order of the Poor Law Board, issued under the Poor Law Acts, directing the alteration or enlargement of the workhouse, the provision of proper drainage, sewers, ventilation, fixtures, furniture, surgical and medical appliances, or directing the appointment of any officer, or prescribing the maximum number of paupers to be maintained in any workhouse or asylum, or the classification of such paupers, such guardians or managers shall be deemed to be in default, and the Poor Law Board may, if they think fit, omit from their precept for such half year, addressed to the Receiver of the Common Poor Fund, the sums which such guardians or the guardians of the unions and parishes comprised in the district to which the asylum belongs, would have been entitled to be repaid under this Act if there had been no such default: Provided that if such guardians or managers shall comply with such Order before the termination of the next ensuing half year, it shall be lawful for the Poor Law Board to include in their precept, for that half year the sums so omitted from their precept for the previous half year.

[The maintenance of officers to be allowed as part of their salaries.]

2. The term “salaries of officers,” referred to in the said sixty-ninth section of the said Metropolitan Poor Act, shall include the cost of the rations of the officers therein described, according to a scale to be fixed by the Poor Law Board.

[Financial statement of guardians.]

3. Within one month of each audit of the accounts of the board of guardians of any union or parish in the metropolis, such board shall deliver, by post or otherwise, to each vestry within such union or parish, one or more copies of the financial statement of such guardians, showing the receipts, expenditure, balances, and liabilities for the half-year, as audited.

[Construction. Short title.]

4. This Act shall be construed in like manner as the Metropolitan Poor Act of 1867, and shall be termed The Metropolitan Poor Amendment Act, 1870.

Source: Public General Statutes, 1870.