Catalogue description Records of Legal, Orders and Parliamentary Departments

The Legal Department of the Local Government Board continued the work of the Poor Law Board, the bulk of which consisted of dealing with appeals against the decisions of district auditors. Its activities increased as the Local Government Board took on wider responsibilities. Legal work in connection with registration of births, deaths and marriages, public health, local government, sanitary administration, artisans and labourers dwellings, local taxation and vaccination was transferred to it.

In 1872 the legal work of the former Local Government Act Office of the Home Office was taken over. The department became responsible for the scrutiny of local authority byelaws. After 1898 audit appeals were transferred to a separate Audit Appeals and Sanctions Department.

There was also a legal adviser who acted as adviser to the president and the parliamentary and permanent secretaries on legal questions beyond the resources of the Legal Department but who played no administrative role.

The Order Department of the Local Government Board dealt with the preparation of orders and provisional orders issued by the board. It also carried out legal work in connection with loan sanction, approval of land transactions and control of stock and investments of local authorities. Provisional orders, parliamentary drafting of confirming bills for provisional orders and their guidance through Parliament, including representation before select committees, were the concern of a Provisional Order and Union and Parish Property Branch of the department.

This branch also dealt with the legal aspects of the acquisition and disposal of property by parishes and poor law unions. It was headed by a junior legal assistant who was ultimately designated parliamentary agent responsible for the Provisional Order and Union and Parish Property Branch of the Order Department. The post of parliamentary agent was discontinued in 1911 and its work divided between the two principal clerks heading the Legal and Order Departments and a legal assistant appointed in 1897.

The Legal branch of the Ministry of Health took over the purely legal aspects of the work of the Legal and Order Departments of the Local Government Board and the functions of the solicitor to the National Health Insurance Commission for England. It was under the direction of the solicitor and legal adviser of the Ministry of Health. The main duties of the branch were legal advice and drafting in connection with legislation, provisional orders, model byelaws, planning clauses and forms for use by local authorities.

It was also responsible for the issue of sealed orders, instruments and consents by the minister in connection with local authority boundaries, services, schemes and finance. After 1951 the solicitor and legal adviser also served the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, and staff were frequently seconded to that department. However the Ministry of Housing and Local Government also established its own Legal and Parliamentary Branch (from 1967 Legal Branch) which continued in the Department of the Environment.