RECORDS OF THE EAST SUSSEX INSURANCE COMMITTEES

Summary of contents

INS/1 East Sussex Insurance Committee

INS/1/1 Minutes of the Committee; 1920-1937

INS/1/2 Resignations and additions to list of Medical Practitioners; 1913-1948

INS/2 Hastings Insurance Committee

INS/2/1 Minutes of the Committee; 1912-1948

INS/2/2 Sub-committee minutes; 1913-1946

INS/2/3 Letterbooks: letters to individuals; 1932-1951

INS/2/4 Letterbooks: letters to the Ministry of Health; 1938-1950

INS/2/5 Registers of payments to practitioners; 1928-1948

INS/2/6 Receipt and payment books; 1914-1937

INS/2/7 Registers of payments for drugs and appliances; 1934-1944

INS/2/8 Quarterly statements of doctors' lists; 1921-1948

INS/2/9 Registers of payments to chemists; 1918-1944

INS/2/10 Payments to invalided persons; 1943-1948

INS/2/11 Register of payments made from the special arrangements fund; 1913-1934

INS/2/12 General ledger; 1913-1947

INS/2/13 Deputising scheme payments; 1939-1946

INS/2/14 Doctors' acceptances and transfers; 1935-1946

INS/2/15 Record of continuation cards received from practitioners; 1931-1932

INS/2/16 Register of policies of insurance; 1920s

INS/2/17 Selection from files; 1925-1948

INS/3 Brighton Insurance Committee

INS/3/1 Minutes of the Committee; 1912-1948

INS/3/2 Agendas, committee minutes and reports; 1914-1948

INS/3/3 Sub-committee minutes; 1916-1924

INS/3/4 National Association of Insurance Committees: minutes, reports and accounts of the Annual General Meetings and Executive Committee; 1917-1931

<p>For minutes of the East Sussex County Council Local Pensions Committee, 1908-1948 see C/C11/38/1-2 and for the Hove Borough Council Local Pensions sub-committee, 1908-1917 see DO/A29/1-3</p>

Open to consultation, unless otherwise stated

Records deposited 3 Feb 1966 (ACC 728 & 729), 16 Feb 1966 (ACC 734); INS/1/2/1 was deposited by Sussex Down & Weald Primary Care Trust, 20 Feb 2003 (ACC 8744)

The records of Eastbourne Insurance Committee were transferred to the Public Record Office as part of a representative sample of the records of local insurance committees, and may be listed as part of MH69

Files of the Hastings Insurance Committee destroyed due to damp

1-6 Medical Benefit sub-committee, c1939-1948

7 Drugs and appliances, c1920-1945

8-9 Administration vouchers, 1945-1948

10-11 Petty cash vouchers, 1946-1948

12 Contributory Pensions Act, 1925-1929

13 National Association of Clerks to Insurance Committees, 1937-1949

14 National Association of Insurance Committees, 1943-1947

15 Circulars issued by the Ministry of Health concerning the war emergancy, 1939-1946

16 Letters about removal to new offices, 1938-1939

17 War Damage Act, 1941-1944

18 Letters issued to doctors, 1937-1948

19 Withdrawals from the medical list, 1926-1948

20 Applications to join the medical list, 1939-1948

21 Advice notes, 1926-1949

22 Circulars issued by the Ministry of Health to Approved Societies, 1939-1948

23 Statistical data furnished to individual practioners; 1930

24 Documents for production to the auditor (8); Jan 1936 - Dec 1938

25 Documents for production to the auditor (9); Jan 1939 - Dec 1941

26 Documents for production to the auditor (10); Jan 1942 - Dec 1945

27 Notifications of advances from the Ministry of Health (3); 1937-1943

28 Notifications of advances from the Ministry of Health (4); 1944-1948

29 Relating to the Finance and General Purposes sub-committee (11); 1941-1948

30 Relating to the Superannuation Fund (3); 1945-1948

Introduction

The National Insurance Act 1911 introduced the first limited scheme of national health and unemployment insurance and was introduced in July 1912. Four Insurance Commissioners, for England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, were appointed by the Treasury to administer the scheme through approved societies and local insurance committees (which were appointed for every county and county borough). The Commissioners were not under direct ministerial control, but the Treasury ministers were responsible to Parliament for the administrative, though not the quasi-judicial functions of the Commissioners. Uniformity was secured by the National Health Insurance Joint Committee, whose administrative staff were merged in 1912 with those of the National Health Insurance Commission for England. This subsequently undertook the work of the secretariat of the joint committee

Each commission had both central and outdoor staff, the latter consisting of an inspectorate assisted by health insurance officers and organised in England and Wales on a divisional basis. In the investigation of claims to exemption and liability use was made of the staff of the Board of Customs and Excise, and there were also local agency arrangements with the Post Office

The central staffs of the commissions were administrative, financial, actuarial and medical. The chief actuary came to serve all the commissions and other government departments. In 1917 he was given the title of government actuary, and in 1919 became the head of a separate Government Actuary's Department. Each commission had a medical member who, together with the chief medical officer, supervised the work of the medical officers performing medical inspection duties, the appointment of medical referees and the organisation of a regional medical service. The financial staff of the English commission were directed by the comptroller-general and its administrative staff were organised in a number of divisions - approved societies, insurance committees, legal, establishment and information. During the First World War the English commission had the additional duty of maintaining an adequate supply of drugs and other medical stores, and it also co-ordinated the supply of doctors for the civilian population and the armed forces

When the Ministry of Health was established in 1919 it assumed the powers and duties of the English and Welsh Commissions. These it discharged through its Insurance Department and through the Welsh Board of Health. The Irish Commission was transferred to the control of the chief secretary for Ireland, and in July 1919 the Scottish commission's powers were given to the new Scottish Board of Health

With the establishment of the National Health Service in 1948 the local insurance committees and approved societies were discontinued. Some of their medical functions passed to the new executive councils established under the National Health Service Act 1946

Medical insurance was provided to all persons over 16 years of age who were engaged in specified employments (working under a contract of service or apprenticeship, the master or member of the crew of a British registerred vessel, an outworker and anyone plying for hire with a licensed vehicle or vessel) but excluded Crown employees and those in the armed forces, employees of statutory companies, teachers, agents paid by commission or fees, employment in respect of which no wages or any other money payment was made where the employer was the occupier of an agricultural holding, employment otherwise than by way of manual labour and at a rate of remuneration exceeding £160 per annum, casual employment, crew of fishing vessel paid in share of profits

The benefits consisted of attendance and treatment by medical practioners, cash benefits for sickness, disablement and materninty and, where surplus funds allowed, for additional benefits including specialist medical, hospital or dental treatment, and skilled nursing services

Unemployment benefit was provided to every workman who, having been employed in a specified trade (building, construction of works, shipbuilding, mechanical engineering, ironfounding, construction of vehicles, sawmilling). The monies were to be derived from contributions by the workmen, by the employers and from Parliament