Public Health Act 1875

This Act may be cited as “The Public Health Act 1875.

This Act shall not extend to Scotland or Ireland, . . . F1

In this Act, if not inconsistent with the context, the following words and expressions have the meanings herein-after respectively assigned to them; that is to say,

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• “Person includes any body of persons, whether corporate or unincorporate:

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• “Lands and “Premises include messuages buildings lands easements and hereditaments of any tenure:

• “Owner means the person for the time being receiving the rackrent of the lands or premises in connexion with which the word is used, whether on his own account or as agent or trustee for any other person, or who would so receive the same if such lands or premises were let at a rackrent:

• “Rackrent means rent which is not less than two-thirds of the full net annual value of the property out of which the rent arises; and the full net annual value shall be taken to be the rent at which the property might reasonably be expected to let from year to year, free from all usual tenant’s rates and taxes, F6. . ., and deducting therefrom the probable average annual cost of the repairs, insurance, and other expenses (if any) necessary to maintain the same in a state to command such rent:

• “Street includes any highway . . . F7and any public bridge . . . F8, and any road lane footway square court alley or passage whether a thoroughfare or not:

• “House includes schools, also factories and other buildings in which . . . F9persons are employed . . . F9.

• “Drain means any drain of and used for the drainage of one building only, or premises within the same curtilage, and made merely for the purpose of communicating therefrom with a cesspool or other like receptacle for drainage, or with a sewer into which the drainage of two or more buildings or premises occupied by different persons is conveyed:

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All offences under this Act, and all penalties forfeitures costs and expenses under this Act directed to be recovered in a summary manner, or the recovery of which is not otherwise provided for, may be prosecuted and recovered in manner directed by the Summary Jurisdiction Acts before a court of summary jurisdiction. F93. . .

No justice of the peace shall be deemed incapable of acting in cases arising under this Act . . . F100 by reason of his being as one of several ratepayers, or as one of any other class of persons liable in common with the others to contribute to, or to be benefited by any rate or fund, out of which any expenses incurred by such authority are under this Act to be defrayed.

No matter or thing done, and no contract entered into by any local authority or joint board or port sanitary authority, and no matter or thing done by any member of any such authority or by any officer of such authority or other person whomsoever acting under the direction of such authority, shall, if the matter or thing were done or the contract were entered into bona fide for the purpose of executing this Act, subject them or any of them personally to any action liability claim or demand whatsoever; and any expense incurred by any such authority member officer or other person acting as last aforesaid shall be borne and repaid out of the fund or rate applicable by such authority to the general purposes of this Act.

Notices orders and other such documents under this Act may be in writing or print, or partly in writing and partly in print; and if the same require authentication by the local authority, the signature thereof by the F108proper officer of the authority shall be sufficient authentication.

Notices orders and any other documents required or authorised to be served under this Act may be served by delivering the same to or at the residence of the person to whom they are respectively addressed, or where addressed to the owner or occupier of premises by delivering the same or a true copy thereof to some person on the premises, or if there is no person on the premises who can be so served by fixing the same on some conspicuous part of the premises; they may also be served by post by a prepaid letter, and if served by post shall be deemed to have been served at the time when the letter containing the same would be delivered in the ordinary course of post, and in proving such service it shall be sufficient to prove that the notice order or other document was properly addressed and put into the post.

Any notice by this Act required to be given to the owner or occupier of any premises may be addressed by the description of the “owner or “occupier of the premises (naming them) in respect of which the notice is given, without further name or description.

Any local authority may, with the consent of the local authority of any adjoining district, execute and do in such adjoining district all or any of such works and things as they may execute and do within their own district, and on such terms as to payment or otherwise as may be agreed on between them and the local authority of the adjoining district; moreover two or more local authorities may combine together for the purpose of executing and maintaining any works that may be for the benefit of their respective districts or any part thereof. All moneys which any local authority may agree to contribute for defraying expenses incurred under this section shall be deemed to be expenses incurred by them in the execution of works within their district.

The reasonable costs of any local authority in respect of provisional orders made in pursuance of this Act, and of the inquiry preliminary thereto, as sanctioned by F130the Secretary of State, whether in promoting or opposing the same, shall be deemed to be expenses properly incurred for purposes of this Act by the local authority interested in or affected by such provisional orders, and such costs shall be paid accordingly; and if thought expedient by F130the Secretary of State, the local authority may contract a loan for the purpose of defraying such costs.

F133The Secretary of State may, on the application of the local authority of any district, by provisional order, wholly or partially repeal alter or amend any local Act, other than an Act for the conservancy of rivers, which is in force in any area comprising the whole or part of any such district, and not conferring powers or privileges on any persons or person for their or his own pecuniary benefit, which relates to the same subject matters as this Act.

Any such provisional order may provide for the extension of the provisions of the local Act referred to therein beyond the district or districts within the limits of such Act, or for the exclusion of the whole or a portion of any such district from the application of such Act; and may provide what local authority shall have jurisdiction for the purposes of this Act in any area which is by such order included in or excluded from such district.

Whenever it becomes necessary for a local authority or any of their officers to enter examine or lay open any lands or premises for the purpose of making plans surveying measuring taking levels making keeping in repair or examining works, ascertaining the course of sewers or drains, or ascertaining or fixing boundaries, and the owner or occupier of such lands or premises refuses to permit the same to be entered upon examined or laid open for the purposes aforesaid or any of them, the local authority may, after written notice to such owner or occupier, apply to a court of summary jurisdiction for an order authorising the local authority to enter examine and lay open the said lands and premises for the purposes aforesaid or any of them.

If no sufficient cause is shown against the application the court may make an order accordingly, and on such order being made the local authority or any of their officers may, at all reasonable times between the hours of nine in the forenoon and six in the afternoon, enter examine or lay open the lands or premises mentioned in such order, for such of the said purposes as are therein specified, without being subject to any action or molestation for so doing: Provided that, except in case of emergency, no entry shall be made or works commenced under this section unless at least twenty-four hours notice of the intended entry, and of the object thereof, be given to the occupier of the premises intended to be entered.

Any person who wilfully obstructs any member of the local authority, or any person duly employed in the execution of this Act, . . . F137 shall, . . . F137 be liable for every such offence to a penalty not exceeding F138level 1 on the standard scale.

Where the occupier of any premises prevents the owner thereof from obeying or carrying into effect any provisions of this Act, any justice to whom application is made in this behalf shall, by order in writing, require such occupier to permit the execution of any works required to be executed, provided that the same appear to such justice to be necessary for the purpose of obeying or carrying into effect the provisions of this Act; and if within twenty-four hours after the making of the order such occupier fails to comply therewith, he shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds for every day during the continuance of such non-compliance.

If the occupier of any premises when requested by or on behalf of the local authority to state the name of the owner of the premises occupied by him, refuses or wilfully omits to disclose or wilfully mis-states the same, he shall (unless he shows cause to the satisfaction of the court for his refusal) be liable to a penalty not exceeding F138level 1 on the standard scale.

Where any person sustains any damage by reason of the exercise of any of the powers of this Act, in relation to any matter as to which he is not himself in default, full compensation shall be made to such person by the local authority exercising such powers; and any dispute as to the fact of damage or amount of compensation shall be settled by arbitration F141. . ., or if the compensation claimed does not exceed the sum of twenty pounds, the same may at the option of either party be ascertained by and recovered before a court of summary jurisdiction.

In the construction of the provisions of any Act incorporated with this Act the term “the special Act includes this Act, and, in the case of the M4Lands Clauses Consolidation Acts 1845, M51860, and M61869, any order confirmed by Parliament and authorising the purchase of lands otherwise than by agreement under this Act; the term “the limits of the special Act means the limits of the district; and the urban or rural authority shall be deemed to be “the promoters of the undertaking, “the commissioners, or “the undertakers, as the case may be.

All penalties incurred under the provisions of any Act incorporated with this Act shall be recovered and applied in the same way as penalties incurred under this Act.

All powers given by this Act shall be deemed to be in addition to and not in derogation of any other powers conferred by Act of Parliament law or custom, and such other powers may be exercised in the same manner as if this Act had not passed; F166. . .

. . . F168 So much of the said Acts as is set forth in the third part of that schedule shall be re-enacted in manner therein appearing, and shall be in force as if enacted in the body of this Act.

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