Minimum Human Requirements and the Beveridge Report

Abstract

IT is a matter for satisfaction that Sir William Beveridge has, in his report, recognized the principle that quantitative standards based on scientific knowledge may, and should, be applied to the measurement of minimum human requirements in food, fuel, light and clothing. As medical knowledge advances, and as cultural demands change, any standards of this nature will be gradually modified, though there can be no doubt that those for food have now been determined with a fair degree of scientific accuracy. We would express our conviction that the food standards now proposed for Great Britain, based as they are on the scales laid down by the British Medical Association and the League of Nations Technical Commission, accord with the opinion of all accredited scientific workers in this particular field.