In cases in which a transferred service is the same in kind as a service already administered by a metropolitan borough council the transferred service may, with the concurrence of that council, be actually delegated. In such a case the net cost of the service would be raised by the council acting as delegates, but that council would be exempt from any contribution to the cost of that service in the rest of the county.

As an example of such a service reference may be made to the maternity and child welfare service. The poor law authorities and the metropolitan borough councils are at present exercising powers which are to some extent parallel. It is proposed that the poor law functions so far as they relate to the health of expectant mothers, nursing mothers, and certain children may be the subject of delegation to the borough councils to the extent to which an existing scheme is in operation in the borough. The care of the health of poor law children attending school, on the other hand, could not be the subject of delegation to the borough council.

With a view to securing the greatest possible measure of elasticity and adaptability it is proposed that the county council shall, after consultation with the metropolitan borough councils, frame and submit to the Minister for approval a scheme embodying the administrative arrangements to be made and it would rest with the Minister in considering the scheme to determine any matter of disagreement that may arise.

It is also proposed that the Unemployed Workmen Act, 1905, should be repealed. The Act is now largely obsolete as a result of the institution of Employment Exchanges, and the adoption of a system of direct grants for relief works undertaken by local authorities. The farm colony belonging to the Central Unemployed Body for London would be transferred to the London County Council.

A brief note of the heads of the proposals is appended.

HEADINGS OF SCHEME OF POOR LAW REFORM.

I. GENERAL.

(1) Boards of Guardians to be abolished.

(2) The Unemployed Workmen Act, 1905, to be repealed and the property and liabilities of the Central (Unemployed) Body for London to be transferred to the London County Council.

(3) Registration of births, deaths and marriages to be transferred to electoral registration officers acting for metropolitan boroughs.

(4) The powers of the guardians in regard to the setting to work and relief of the poor, the apprenticeship of poor children, emigration and vaccination, and incidental powers to be transferred to the London County Council. (Subject as regards the relief and setting to work of the poor to paragraph (5).)

(5) Relief to able-bodied persons to be limited, and correlated with unemployment insurance.

(6) The area of settlement (or irremovability) of the chargeable poor to be the administrative County of London in lieu of the parish or union.

(7) Transferred expenditure to continue to be subject to Government audit.

(8) Existing poor law property (including institutions) and liabilities and staff to be transferred to the London County Council. The transfer to be subject as regards the staff to the usual provisions for compensation, etc., and as regards property and liabilities to adjustment as between existing union areas.

(9) Provision to be made to facilitate the use by agreement of London institutions or other special services by local authorities outside the metropolis.

(10) The Minister to be empowered, on the application of the London County Council, to increase the number of elected councillors or to provide for co-option in cases where the present members would be overtaxed by the addition of the transferred duties.

(11) The county council to be the supervising and controlling authority for all health purposes throughout the administrative county.

(12) The county council to provide (subject to paragraph (13)) for the carrying out of the transferred duties through existing or new committees of the council, assisted where necessary by local sub-committees consisting of county councillors or partly of county council ors and partly of representatives of the metropolitan borough councils.

(13) The county council with the concurrence of a metropolitan borough council to delegate to that council any transferred service identical in kind with a service already administered by it.

(14) The county council to submit for confirmation by the Minister a scheme showing the arrangements proposed for the county, including any proposals for the payment by the county council out of the block grant paid to the county council, of grants in aid of existing grant-aided health services and of services (if any) delegated under paragraph (13), with any observations submitted by the metropolitan borough councils. The scheme to become operative on confirmation with or without modifications made by the Minister. (15) Proposals for the modification of an operative scheme to be submitted for confirmation as occasion may require.

(16) The Metropolitan Asylums Board to cease to exist and its staff, property and liabilities to be transferred to the London County Council.

(17) The Metropolitan Common Poor Fund to cease to exist.

II.--FINANCIAL.

(18) The assigned revenue system to be abolished.

(19) Local taxation licence duties at present levied by the London County Council to continue to be levied and retained by them.

(20) Grants under the Agricultural Rates Acts, 1896 and 1923 to be replaced by a grant fixed from time to time for a term of years distributed to the rating authorities on the basis of assessable value of agricultural land.

(21) Transferred and existing health services to be aided by a block grant, fixed from time to time for a term of years and replacing (a) the balance of the assigned revenue grants so far as they are allotted to poor relief and public health services or unspecified services, and (b) other present grants in aid of health services. The new grant to be the council's share of a total grant for the whole country distributed among county and county borough councils on a basis of population qualified by a factor representing low ability to pay.

(22) The assigned revenue grants allotted to education and police services to be merged in the general grants in aid of those services.

(23) Transferred services (other than health services) the same in kind as services at present grant-aided, to earn grant if undertaken as part of the services at present aided (e.g., education of children).

(24) The cost of delegated services to be borne by the borough council to whom they are delegated, but to be eligible for grant assistance in accordance with a scheme for the county made under paragraph (14).

(25) The cost of all other transferred services to be a county charge, except that a metropolitan borough council is to be exempt from contributions to the cost of executing outside the borough a service delegated to the borough council.

Sir, I am directed by the Minister of Health to say that his attention has recently been drawn to the presence of considerable quantities of arsenic on the surface of certain imported apples. Two cases of arsenical poisoning have been traced to the consumption of imported Jonathan apples, and a number of samples of these apples which have been examined have shown various amounts of arsenic ranging up to 1/10th of a grain per pound.

The contamination of apples by arsenic has been occasionally reported for a number of years but the quantities of arsenic found by analysis on former occasions have generally been insignificant and until recently no cases of illness have been traced to the consumption of such apples.

The amount of arsenic is liable to be especially large in apples grown in dry foreign climates where the apples are repeatedly sprayed during growth and the rainfall is not sufficient to wash off the deposit.

The Minister understands that importers of apples from the regions concerned are taking such steps as are possible to secure the removal of the contamination from future consignments, but he desires to urge upon local authorities, the necessity, especially during the next few weeks, of making full use of their powers under the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, the Public Health Acts and the Public Health (Imported Food) Regulations to protect the public by the examination of samples of apples likely to be affected and by arranging for the withdrawal from sale of those which are found to be dangerously contaminated. I am, Sir,

Your obedient servant,

The Town Clerk, or

The Clerk to the Council, or
The Clerk to the Port Sanitary
Authority.

R. B. CROSS,
Assistant Secretary.

Circular 660.

MINISTRY OF HEALTH,

Whitehall, S.W. 1,

1st January, 1926.

WIDOWS', ORPHANS' AND OLD AGE CONTRIBUTORY PENSIONS ACT, 1925.

SIR,

1. I am directed by the Minister of Health to draw the attention of the Local Authority to the terms of the Widows', Orphans' and Old Age Contributory Pensions Act, 1925. The Minister anticipates that at a later stage in the experience of the working of the Act it will be possible for him to state in fuller detail the ways in which the Local Authority can assist in the successful administration of the Act. The observations made in the present Circular are provisional only and intended to afford such guidance as it is at present possible to give to Local Authorities in regard to their duties and powers under the Act. It should be understood generally that the Minister does not, as at present advised, consider that Local Authorities need arrange for anything in the nature of a continuous surveillance over beneficiaries under the Act.

2. Widows' and Orphans' pensions under the above Act will begin to be paid on Tuesday, the 5th of January, 1926. Leaflets are enclosed setting out (a), the conditions under which pensions are payable to the widows of men who died before 4th January, 1926, and to orphan children whose parents died before that date, and (b) the conditions applicable to the widows of men who die after 4th January, 1926, and to children who become orphans after that date.

3. Section 6 (2) of the Act enables a Local Authority to make representations to the Minister

(a) where a widow or other person to whom an additional allowance is payable in respect of a child has deserted or abandoned or ceased to support the child, or has become disqualified for the time being from receiving a widow's pension; or

(b) where an orphan's pension is being paid;

that it would be in the interests of the child that the additional allowance or orphan's pension payable in respect of it should be administered by the Local Authority or by some other person for its benefit, instead of being paid to the widow or guardian.

4. When cases in any of these categories come to the notice of the Local Authority full inquiries should be made to ascertain the facts, and ordinarily, before submitting the case to the Minister, the widow or other person affected should be given an opportunity of presenting her case either personally or through a representative to the Local Authority or a person appointed for the purpose by the Local Authority. Unless the widow or other person is given this opportunity of presenting her case, the Minister cannot act on the representation of the Local Authority (except where the person concerned cannot be found, or is in prison, or in an asylum or other similar institution) without first giving the widow an opportunity of presenting her case to a person appointed by him.

5. When representations are made to the Minister in any case it will be of great assistance if the Local Authority will suggest what arrangements should be made for the administration of the moneys. In the case of deserted children, for instance, the Local Authority might recommend whether the children should be placed in the care of relatives or friends, or of charitable institu tions, and to whom payment of the allowance or pension should be made. It is open to the Local Authority in suitable cases to recommend that the money should be paid to them to be adminis tered for the benefit of the children.

6. In some cases representations will be made by other persons to the Minister that it is in the interests of the children that their allowances or pensions should be diverted from the person receiving them. Ordinarily these cases will be referred to the Local Authority for investigation before a decision is taken.

7. Section 41 (5) of the Act further provides that the Minister may refer to the Local Authority for investigation and report any matter relating to a widow or child to or in respect of whom a widow's or orphan's pension or an additional allowance is payable.

Local Authorities under the Act.

8. For the purposes of the Act the Local Authorities are: — (a) For County Boroughs-County Borough Councils. (b) For Counties (other than London).

(i) In non-county boroughs and urban districts the councils of which are both local education authorities and authorities for maternity and child welfare-the councils of those boroughs and urban districts. (ii) In the remainder of the County-the County Council, which may make arrangements with any sanitary authority whose area is wholly or partly situate within the County for the exercise and performance of any of the powers and duties of the County Council under the Act.

(c) For London-the London County Council, with power to make arrangements with the City Corporation and the Metropolitan Borough Councils for the exercise and performance of any of the powers and duties of the County Council under the Act.