Public Health Act 1872
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1872 c. 79 |
| Year | 1872 |
Public Health Act, 1872
(35 & 36 Vict.) CHAPTER 79.
An Act to amend the Law relating to Public Health.
[10th August 1872]
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:
Preliminary.
1 Short title.
1. This Act may be cited for all purposes as thePublic Health Act, 1872.
2 Application of Act.
2. This Act shall not apply to Scotland or Ireland, nor, except in so far as is by this Act expressly provided, to the Metropolis.
Sanitary Authorities.
3 Urban and rural sanitary districts.
3. From and after the passing of this Act England shall be divided into sanitary districts to be called respectively—
(1) (1.) Urban sanitary districts; and
(2) (2.) Rural sanitary districts;
and such urban and rural sanitary districts shall respectively be subject to the jurisdiction of local authorities, in this Act called urban sanitary authorities and rural sanitary authorities, invested with the powers in this Act mentioned.
4 Description of urban sanitary districts and urban sanitary authorities.
4. Urban sanitary districts shall consist of the places in that behalf mentioned in the first column of the table in this section contained, and urban sanitary authorities shall be the several bodies of persons specified in the second column of the said table in relation to the said places respectively.
Table above referred to.
Urban Sanitary District. |
Urban Sanitary Authority. |
Borough constituted such either before or after the passing of this Act. |
The Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses acting by the Council. |
Improvement Act district constituted such before the passing of this Act, and having no part of its area situated within a borough or Local Government district. |
The Improvement Commissioners. |
Local Government district constituted such either before or after the passing of this Act, having no part of its area situated within a borough, and not coincident in area with a borough or Improvement Act district. |
The Local Board. |
Provided that—
(1) (1.) Any borough, the whole of which is included in and forms part of a Local Government district or Improvement Act district, and any Improvement Act district which is included in and forms part of a Local Government district, and any Local Government district which is included in and forms part of an Improvement Act district, shall for sanitary purposes be deemed to be absorbed in the larger district in which it is included, or of which it forms part; and the improvement commissioners or local board, as the case may be, of such larger district, shall be the sanitary authority therein; and
(2) (2.) Where a Borough or an Improvement Act district is coincident in area with a Local Government district, such Borough or Improvement Act district shall be an urban sanitary district, and the council or improvement commissioners, having jurisdiction over such borough or district, and not a local board, shall be the sanitary authority:
(3) (3.) Where any part of an Improvement Act district is situated within a borough or Local Government district, or where any part of a Local Government district is situated within a borough, the remaining part of such Improvement Act district or Local Government district shall continue subject to the like jurisdiction for sanitary purposes as it would have been subject to if this Act had not passed, unless and until the Local Government Board by provisional order otherwise directs.
For the purposes of this Act, the boroughs of Oxford, Cambridge, Blandford, Calne, Wenlock, Folkestone, and Newport, Isle of Wight, shall not be deemed to be boroughs, and the borough of Cambridge shall be deemed to be an Improvement Act district, and the borough of Oxford to be included in the Local Government district of Oxford. The Cambridge Commissioners described in section thirty-one of the Public Health Act, 1848, shall not exercise any fresh powers of rating or borrowing conferred upon them by this Act until the expiration of one year after the passing thereof, unless with the assent of the University first specified in writing under the hand of the Vice-Chancellor, and with the assent of the Town Council of Cambridge; and so much of the borough of Folkestone as is not included within the Local Government district of Sandgate shall be an urban sanitary district, and shall be under the jurisdiction, for sanitary purposes, of the authority for, executing ‘The Folkestone Improvement Act, 1855.’
5 Description of rural sanitary districts and rural sanitary authorities.
5. A rural union in this section means any union which is not coincident in area with an urban sanitary district, nor wholly included in an urban sanitary district.
The area of a rural union, with the exception of those portions (if any) of the area which are included in urban sanitary districts, shall form a rural sanitary district, and the guardians of the union shall form the rural sanitary authority of such district, with the following exceptions; that is to say,
(1) (1.) No elective guardian of any parish belonging to such union, and forming or being wholly included within an urban sanitary district, shall act or vote in any case in which guardians of such union act or vote in their capacity of members of the rural sanitary authority.
(2) (2.) Where part of a parish belonging to a rural union forms or is situated in an urban sanitary district, the Local Government Board may, by order, divide such parish into separate wards and determine the number of guardians to be elected by such wards respectively in such manner as to provide for the due representation of the part of the parish lying within the rural sanitary district; but until such order has been made the guardian or guardians of such parish may act and vote as members of the rural sanitary authority in the same manner as if no part of such parish formed part of or was situated in an urban sanitary district:
(3) (3.) An ex-officio guardian resident in any parish or part of a parish belonging to such union, which parish or part of a parish forms or is situated in an urban sanitary district, shall not act or vote in any case in which guardians of such union act or vote in their capacity of members of the rural sanitary authority, unless he is the owner or occupier of property situated in the rural sanitary district of a value sufficient to qualify him as an elective guardian for the union.
6 First meeting of sanitary authority.
6. The first meeting of a sanitary authority under this Act shall be held within twenty-eight days after the passing of this Act, or at such other time as may be directed by order of the Local Government Board.
7 Powers and duties of urban sanitary authority.
7. Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Local Government Acts shall be deemed to be in force within the district of every urban sanitary authority, and from and after the first meeting of an urban sanitary authority in pursuance of this Act there shall be transferred and attach to an urban sanitary authority, to the exclusion of any other authority which may have previously exercised or been subject to the same;—All powers, rights, duties, capacities, liabilities, and obligations within such district exerciseable or attaching by and to a local board under the Local Government Acts, and by and to the sewer authority under the Sewage Utilization Acts, and by and to the nuisance authority under the Nuisances Removal Acts, and by and to the local authority under the Common Lodging Houses Acts, the Artizans and Labourers Dwellings Act, and the Bakehouse Regulation Act, or by and to any of the said authorities under any of such Acts, or any Acts amending such Acts.
Where the Baths and Washhouses Acts and the Labouring Classes Lodging Houses Acts or any of them are in force within the district of any urban sanitary authority, such authority shall have all powers, rights, duties, capacities, liabilities, and obligations in relation to such Acts exerciseable by or attached to the council, incorporated commissioners, local board, improvement commissioners, and other commissioners or persons acting in the execution of the said Acts or any of them.
Where the Baths and Washhouses Acts are not in force within the district of any urban sanitary authority, such urban sanitary authority may adopt such Acts, and where the Labouring Classes Lodging Houses Acts are not in force within the district of any urban sanitary authority, such urban sanitary authority may adopt such Acts.
8 Powers and duties of rural sanitary authority.
8. Subject to the provisions of this Act, and from and after the first meeting of a rural sanitary authority in pursuance of this Act, there shall be transferred and attach to a rural sanitary authority, to the exclusion of any other authority which may have previously exercised or been subject to the same, all powers, rights, duties, capacities, liabilities, and obligations within such district exerciseable or attaching by and to the sewer authority under the Sewage Utilization Acts, and by and to the nuisance authority under the Nuisances Removal Acts, and by and to the local authority under the Common Lodging...
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