| Description | Minute volumes indexed. The minutes are printed and signed by the committee Chairman. Minute volumes BCC/1/BM/1/1/1 - 7 are in the uniformly titled minute volumes. The minute sequence for the Public Health and Housing Committee continues for the de-merged Public Health Committee. It starts again in October 1929, minute 12341. Minute volumes BCC/1/BM/8 onwards are also in uniformly titled minute volumes. The minute volumes contain copies of the quarterly returns to the main committee; printed reports of the committee to Council; reports of various sub-committees to the main committee; tenders for proposed works; printed copies of relevant public health bye-laws; reports and statistics relating the repair and demolition of insanitary properties; reports on the maintenance of Common Lodging Houses, with particular regard to overcrowding, fire escape provision and the like; reports and orders made by the Inspector of Nuisances relating to smoke and other emissions given out by factories and other industrial buildings in the city; information relating to the treatment of disease, particularly among poor children; information relating to the registration and inspection of canal boats; reports relating to the provision, inspection and operation of burial grounds; lists of individuals and firms registered to sell drugs and other chemicals under the provisions of the Pharmacy and Poisons Act, 1933; information relating to the registration of eating houses and licensed premises; information relating to departmental staffing and salaries; general accounts and statements of income and expenditure (including budgetary allocations for hospitals and sanatoria that fell under the care of the committee); and related correspondence and papers. The later minutes include a large amount of information relating to the provision of maternity and child care facilities in Birmingham, the registration and employment of midwives and the like. There are some criminal proceedings mentioned in the minutes, including prosecutions of individuals in breach of public health guidelines and bye-laws, negligence of staff employed at city hospitals and other institutions and the occasional case of attempted bribery of civic officials and inspectors by individuals and businesses affected by departmental inspections. The minutes of 12 February 1915 include correspondence concerning War Office instructions that certain hospitals under the care of the committee be used to soldiers wounded in action during the First World War (see minute 3011 in BCC/1/BM/1/1/5, as well as subsequent minutes), whilst the minute volumes covering this period and the Second World War include a good deal of information about the impact of war on the work of the department (see BCC/1/BM/1/1/4 - 7 and 30 - 34). |