The Beveridge Memorial Lecture
At the Beveridge Memorial lecture, the Royal Statistical Society presents outstanding speakers to carry forward his legacy, promoting the value of statistics to wider society.
View the 2012 Beveridge Lecture by Danny Dorling: “Fairness and the changing fortunes of people in Britain 1970-2012”
Sir William Beveridge published a groundbreaking report in 1942 that created a blueprint for the UK's welfare state.
Beveridge, who was appointed president the RSS in 1941, was an economist, adviser to Lloyd George and former director of the LSE. He was driven by the pursuit of social justice and believed that the discovery of objective socio-economic laws could solve the problems of society.
Beveridge's remit was to report on the best ways of helping people on low incomes. He found that Britain's medical provision "fell seriously short" compared with other countries of the world. He highlighted huge inadequacies in provision for old age, and the wider social security system.
He proposed that all people of working age should pay a weekly contribution. In return, the state would pay benefits to people who were sick, unemployed, retired or widowed to provide a minimum standard of living - but no more.
The British wartime government that commissioned the report was a coalition with members from the Conservative, Labour and Liberal parties. Beveridge's masterful use of statistics won over people of all political persuasions to the macro-economic benefits of a welfare state. But it was the Labour Government elected in 1945 that began the process of implementing his proposals.
Past lectures include:
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2009 Baroness Onora O’Neill, Principal Newnham College Cambridge, 'Holding accountability to account'
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2007 Julian Le Grand, London School of Economics & Political Science, 'The giants of excess: a challenge to the nation’s health'
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2005 John Hills, Professor of Social Policy and Director of the ESRC Research Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) Demography, 'Distribution and the future of pensions in the UK?
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2003 Sir Michael Marmot, Director of University College London's Centre for Health and Society, 'Social inequalities in health'
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2001 Andrew Dilnot, Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies Microdata, 'Inequality and the future of the welfare state'
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1999 Sir Donald Acheson, 'The Acheson report on inequalities in health'
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1998 Frank Field MP, Minister of State for Welfare Reform, 'Then and now'
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1984 Professor George Barnard, 'Rescuing our manufacturing industry - some of the statistical problems'
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1975 Sir Maurice Kendall, 'Towards a sense of social purpose'
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1969 Sir Paul Chambers, chairman of Imperial Chemical Industries, 'Forward from Beveridge'
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1966 Harold Wilson, Prime Minister, 'First Beveridge memorial lecture'
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1943 Sir William Beveridge to Royal Statistical Society, 'Social security - some transatlantic comparisons'
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1942 Sir William Beveridge to Royal Statistical Society, 'Post-war planning - the abolition of want and urban congestion'
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William Beveridge
William Beveridge, 1879-1963
William Beveridge was born in India. After studying at Charterhouse School and Balliol College, Oxford, he became a lawyer.
In 1908 he joined the Board of Trade as a leading authority on unemployment insurance. The following year he was appointed Director of Labour Exchanges. Beveridge's ideas influenced David Lloyd George and led to the passing of the 1911 National Insurance Act.
In 1919 Beveridge began an 18-year tenure as director of the London School of Economics. He was highly influenced by the Fabian Society socialists - in particular by Beatrice Potter Webb, with whom he worked on the 1909 Poor Laws report. His works on unemployment (1909) and massive historical study of prices and wages (1939) were testaments to those values and his skills as an economist and statistician.
In 1937 he was appointed as Master of University College Oxford. Three years later, Ernest Bevin, Minister of Labour, asked Beveridge to look into existing schemes of social security and make recommendations. In 1941, the government commissioned Beveridge to report on how Britain should be rebuilt after World War II. He also accepted the presidency of the Royal Statistical Society.
His report, published in 1942, argued for a minimum standard of living 'below which no one should be allowed to fall'. He recommended that the government should find ways of fighting the five 'giant evils: want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness.' This led to the establishment of the modern welfare state and the National Health Service.
Later that year, he was elected to Parliament as Liberal MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed. In 1945 the new Labour Government led by Clement Attlee began implementing Beveridge's proposals. Attlee announced the establishment of a National Health Service in 1948 with free medical treatment for all and a national system of benefits to provide social security from 'the cradle to the grave'. The new system was partly built on the National Insurance scheme set up by Lloyd George in 1911.
In 1946 he was created Baron Beveridge, and eventually became leader of the Liberals in the House of Lords. He authored Power and Influence in 1953. Beveridge died at home in March 1963. His last words, whilst still working on his History of Prices in bed, were 'I have a thousand things to do'.
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Non-RSS Events
If you have a non-RSS event you wish to include on the calendar please email Paul Gentry with details.
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