Living and Learning
How Parliament worked with social reformers to improve our health, working conditions and education over the last two centuries
A Nation's Health: From Elizabeth I to the NHS
Explore the Parliamentary Collections as we celebrate the 70th anniversary of our first NHS hospital by looking how Parliament influenced healthcare through the centuries.
- 1571 Leicester Hospital Act
- 1572 Vagabonds Act
- 1704 Rose v. College of Physicians (In Error)
- 1712 Newcastle Hospital Bill
- 1842 Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain
- 1848 Public Health Bill debates
- 1917 UK Health Problems Pamphlet
- 1942 Beveridge Report
- 1946 National Health Service Act
School
Parliament has been a central force in building and shaping the nation's system of state education, going back to the 1830s with the very first state grants to what were then privately run schools
19Thcentury
In the 19th century, Parliament made reforms to improve the lives of men, women and children in the poorer sections of society