THE SOCIAL ACTIVITIES OF GOVERNMENT 121

to the Ministry of Health, or sometimes to other Government
Departments, for approval of the terms of the loan. The Ministry
has also to make the elaborate calculations necessary to find out
how large a grant of money each local authority is entitled to
receive from the Central Government-
While most of the Acts concerned with Public Health are
carried out by local authorities, the Minister receives the annual
report of each local Medical Officer of Health, and from these
is able to draw conclusions as to the need for improving the law,
or for stimulating some local authority to do its work more
thoroughly. Subordinate to the Ministry is the General Register
Office, which supervises the work of the Registrars of Births and
Deaths throughout the country. The * Vital statistics" so compiled
are an index of the efficiency of the health services. Closely allied
to Public Health is Housing. A Central Housing Advisory Com-
mittee is appointed by the Minister under the Housing Act, 1936.
Beside dealing with certain special problems of that Act, the
Committee has to consider the general effect of all laws about
housing, and report to the Minister; it is therefore likely to be
a source of new legislation. Many past Housing Acts have
provided subsidies to local authorities, so that they should be
able to build houses for poorer people; these subsidies the
Ministry has to distribute. Local schemes of slum clearance and
new building impose on the Ministry the routine duty of holding
enquiries; more exceptionally it has.to order negligent authorities
to proceed with this work. The Public Assistance activity of the
Ministry of Health covers those poor who are not dealt with by
the Unemployment Assistance Board. Here also the administra-
tion is carried out locally under the Ministry's supervision.
It will thus be seen that the Ministry's functions in these services
are:—to collect information, and use it for the development of
policy; to extend and enforce the law, which it does by Regulations
requiring Parliamentary sanction; and to be ready to take
emergency action, should the local machinery break down.
Insurance and Pensions. The first National Health Insurance