150th Anniversary of Pioneering Health Act

On the 26 June 1846 Queen Victoria gave Royal Assent to the Liverpool Sanatory Act, bearing the full title: An Act for the Improvement of the Sewerage and Drainage of the Borough of Liverpool, and for making further Provision for the Sanatory Regulation of the Said Borough. 9+10 Victoriae Cap cxxvii.

This was the first public health legislation in Britain to establish the infrastructure which local authorities required for effective sanitary reform. Thus Liverpool gained a reputation as a pioneering public health city. Many ideas from the Liverpool Sanatory Act were subsequently incorporated into the 1848 national Public Health Act.

The Act created the posts of Medical Officer of Health, Borough Engineer and Inspector of Nuisances, which were advertised during the autumn of 1846 and occupied from January 1847 by Dr William Henry Duncan, James Newlands and Thomas Fresh respectively. It established a model sanitary code to control the condition of housing, water and sewer supplies, identification of infectious diseases and 'nuisances'. Many of the planning regulations we recognise today originate from this Act of Parliament.

The reception is part of a larger series of events planned for 1997 to mark the 150th anniversary of the appointment of Dr Duncan as Britain's first Medical Officer of Health. A public health exhibition will be held at the Museum of Liverpool Life. Other events are being co-ordinated by Dr Sally Sheard, Lecturer in History of Public Health at the University of Liverpool Tel: (0151) 794 5593.

Pictured: Professor John Tarn (Pro-Vice-Chancellor), Dr Sally Sheard (Lecturer in History of Public Health), Roger Hoyle (Chief Executive, Liverpool Health Authority), Professor John Ashton (Director of Public Health, NHS Executive Office North West), Paul Laxton (Lecturer in Geography), Dr Ruth Hussey (Director of Public Health, Liverpool Health Authority) and Deputy Lord Mayor Councillor Margaret Clarke.