The government announced a Royal Commission to investigate the operation of poor relief in England and Wales, gathering evidence that would underpin the later overhaul of the system.
The Royal Commission’s report (widely associated with Nassau Senior and Edwin Chadwick) recommended central oversight, grouping parishes into unions, and restricting able-bodied relief to workhouses—ideas soon enacted in legislation.
The Poor Law Amendment Act (4 & 5 Will. IV c. 76) became law, creating a new national framework for poor relief in England and Wales and enabling a centrally directed system emphasizing the workhouse for able-bodied claimants.
Three Poor Law Commissioners were appointed and began operating from Somerset House, with Edwin Chadwick as secretary, to supervise the new system and issue binding regulations to local poor-law authorities.
The Poor Law Commission issued the Outdoor Labour Test Order, permitting outdoor relief to able-bodied people under specified “labour test” conditions—an early, pragmatic modification of the workhouse-only ideal when economic conditions made strict indoor relief impractical.
The Commission issued an order to prohibit (with defined exceptions) outdoor relief for the able-bodied in named unions, aiming to enforce the principle that able-bodied relief should generally be confined to the workhouse.
Following revelations about conditions at Andover workhouse, a parliamentary Select Committee report (published in August 1846) criticized failures by local guardians and central administration; the controversy helped precipitate major administrative restructuring.
The Poor Law Board Act 1847 (10 & 11 Vict. c. 109) reorganized central oversight of poor relief, replacing the Poor Law Commission with the Poor Law Board and bringing the system under closer ministerial and parliamentary accountability.
This London-focused act required Poor Law unions in the metropolis to provide temporary accommodation (via casual wards) for certain destitute transient groups, redistributing parts of the cost across metropolitan areas.
The Union Chargeability Act broadened the funding base for poor relief by shifting financial responsibility within unions, reducing the incentive for individual parishes to deter claimants and altering how relief costs were distributed.
The Metropolitan Poor Act 1867 (30 & 31 Vict. c. 6) established specialized institutions in London for the sick, insane, and other classes of poor, and created arrangements (including the Metropolitan Asylums Board) that helped separate medical care from general poor relief administration.
Poor Law Board president George Goschen issued a policy “Minute” urging coordination between guardians and charities and criticizing uncontrolled outdoor relief; it became influential in promoting a more restrictive approach to outdoor relief in subsequent years.
The Local Government Board Act 1871 transferred the Poor Law Board’s functions into a broader supervisory body for local government and public health in England and Wales, marking a major institutional reorganization of Poor Law administration.
Poor Law Amendment Act and Poor Law Administration (1834–1871)
