 There were three Poor Law Commissioners; under them were a number of Assistant Commissioners, each reposible for a designated area of the country, within which they inspected and advised the poor law authorities

The Poor Law Commission required that the diet of able-bodied workhouse inmates be worse than that of the working poor locally; since the latter varied across the country, the PLC had a number of standard 'dietaries' and specified for each workhouse the appropriate dietary