Report of the Royal Commission on the care and control of the feeble-minded, Volume VIII.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-minded.
Date:
1908
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report of the Royal Commission on the care and control of the feeble-minded, Volume VIII. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    B.-THE LOCAL AUTHORITIES, (a)—Constitution and Duties. (Recommendations XXVIII.-XXXIV.) Local Authority Defined. 240. Tlie council of every administrative county and county borough re.spectively constituted under the Local Government Act, 1888 [and the council of each of the boroughs specified in the Fourth Schedule, or in the case of the City of London the Common Council], shall be a local authority for the purposes of this Act. Note to Recommendation XXVIII. Local Authority defined. Powers for Providing Asylums. 241. A local authority may provide asylum accommodation for pauper and private patients, together or in separate asylums, and may provide separate asylums for idiots or patients suffering from any particular class of mental disorder. Power of Secretary of State to Enforce Act. Power to provide asylums for pauper and private patients. 247. If the Commissioners report to a Secretary of State that any local authority has failed Default by county to satisfy the requirements of tliis Act as regards asylum accommodation, the Secretary of State or borough in pro- may require the local authority to j)rovide such accommodation in such manner as he may direct, viding asylum, anil the local authority shall forthwith carry the requisition into effect. Recommendation XXIX. That the local authority shall exercise the powers proposed to be con- ferred on them under the proposed Act through a Statutory Committee. Note.—The Statutory precedents for the course suggested are as follows:—Lunacy Act, 1890, Sections 169, 175, 239, and the Local Government Act, 1888, Section 82, Visiting Committees of Asylums. 169.—(1.) For every asylum there shall be a Visiting Committee appointed annually by the local authority, consisting of not less than seven members. (2.) The Visiting Committee of a district asylum shall be constituted of the number of members fixed by the agreement under which the asylum is provided’ (3.) Where there is more than one asylum, the local authority may appoint one committee for the management and control of all the asylums, and such committee shall appoint a sub-committee for each separate asylum, and may delegate to that sub-committee such powers and duties as the committee from time to time think fit. (4.) Where a county borough has contributed towards the cost of any county asylum, the council of the borough may, if they so desire, appoint to be members of the Visiting Committee of the asylum such number of members of the council as may be agreed upon, or in default of agreement be determined by the Commissioners under the Local Government Act, 1888, or after they have ceased to hold office, by arbitration under that Act. Such appointment shall be in substitution for any ap})ointment previously made on the part of the Iwrough. (5.) Where a borough, not being a county borough, has contributed towards the cost of any county asylum, and the representatives of the borough on the county council are not ^titled to vote for the appointment by the council of visitors of the asylum, the council of the borough may appoint two persons to be memliers of the committee. (6.) During the continuance of a contract for the reception of the pauper lunatics of a county borough or borough specified in the Fourth Schedule into a county asylum, the council of the borouo-h shall appoint a Visiting Committee to visit the lunatics sent from such county borough or horouMi in the asylum. 175.—(1.) The provisions of section eighty-two of the Local Government Act, 1888, with respect to the proceedings of committees of county councils shall apply to the proceedings of every Visiting Committee appointed wholly or partly by a county council, and the chairman of such committee may be elected accordingly. (2.1 To other Visiting Committees the following provisions shall apply :— («.) The members of the committee shall within one month after their election meet at some convenient place, to he named in a notice in writing given by two or more of such members or by the clerk of the outgoing committee by the direction of two or more of such members ; {b.) Notices of meetings shall be given to each member personally, or left at his place of abode, or sent by post seven days at least before the time appointed for the meeting ; (c.) The members shall at the first meeting elect one'of their number to be chairman of the committee ; {(1.) The chairman shall preside at all meetings at which he is present. In case of his absence from any meeting the members present shall elect one of their number to be chairman of the meeting ; (e.) Any meeting may be adjourned from time to time and from place to place; (/!) The committee shall meet as often as they may think fit. (g.) A meeting may he adjourned by two members ; for all other purposes three members shall be a quorum ; (A.) Every question shall be decided by a majority of the votes of the members present, and in the event of an equality of votes the chairman shall have a second or casting vote ; (i.) The clerk of the comniittee shall, whenever required in writing by the chairman or any two members of the committee, or by the manager of the asylum, and the chairman may, when- ever he thinks fit, summon a meeting of the committee ; 239.—A local authority shall exercise the powers conferred by this Act for providing asylum accommodation by a visiting committee, subject, if the local authority thinks fit, to their directions as to which of the methods of providing asylum accommodation authorised by this Act shall he adopted. Local authority to act through a Committee. Constitution of Visiting Committee. 51 & 52 Viet. c. 41. Meetings of Visiting Committee. Powers to be exer- cised by a Visiting Committee.