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Origin of the British legislative provision for medical research†

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

A. Landsborough Thomson
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Extract

In the United Kingdom, special legislative provision for medical research was first made by the National Insurance Act 1911. On various earlier occasions public funds for the purpose had been provided on a small scale to successive central health departments in England and Wales, sporadically from 1833 and regularly from 1870; and notably to the Royal Commission on Tuberculosis appointed in 1901, which decided to ascertain facts by investigation rather than listen to opinions from witnesses.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , January 1973 , pp. 41 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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References

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64 Subsequent Orders modified some details of the constitution; the composition of the Committee of Privy Council was altered more than once to meet changes in ministerial functions, and in 1959 a Minister for Science replaced the Lord President as Chairman. A short Supplemental Charter was approved in 1949. Minor amendments to the Charter were allowed by instruments of a lower category – Orders of the Committee of Privy Council for Medical Research. A new Charter was granted in 1966 and was amended in 1971 in two respects.

Subsequent legislation: Section 16(1) of the National Health Service Act 1946 (9 & 10 Geo. 6, Ch. 81) empowered the Minister of Health to conduct research or assist others to do so; and Section 16(2) empowered hospital boards and management committees to conduct research. (The Minister already had a statutory duty in this regard under Section 2 of the Ministry of Health Act 1919.) A reservation was included in Section 16(1) that the power was given ‘without prejudice to…the duties imposed on the Committee of the Privy Council for Medical Research’; the point having been made, it was not thought necessary to have a like reservation included in the equivalent National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1947 (10 & 11 Geo. 6, Ch. 27). The Science and Technology Act 1965 (Elizabeth, 2, 1965, Ch. 4)Google Scholar transferred the functions of the Committee of Privy Council for Medical Research to the Secretary of State for Education and Science. Responsibilities of a technical nature have been placed on the Medical Research Council by a number of statutes: Therapeutic Substances Act 1925 (15 & 16 Geo. 5, Ch. 60); London Gas Undertakings (Regulations) Act 1939 (2 & 3 Geo. 6, Ch. 99); Penicillin Act 1947 (10 & 11 Geo. 6, Ch. 29); Therapeutic Substances (Prevention of Misuse) Act 1953 (1 & 2 Eliz. 2, Ch. 32); Therapeutic Substances Act 1956 (4 & 5 Eliz. 2, Ch. 25) – a consolidating measure, repealing the Acts of 1925, 1947, 1953 and another; Public Health Laboratory Service Act 1960 (8 & 9 Eliz. 2, Ch. 49); Radiological Protection Act 1970 (Elizabeth, 2, 1970, Ch. 46).Google Scholar