The commission lasted until 1847 when it was replaced by a Poor Law Board – the Andover workhouse scandal being one of the reasons for this change.
Edwin Chadwick, one of the writers of the 1832 royal commission hoped to become commissioner but instead only got the post of secretary.
The commission however did have powers over dietaries for the workhouse and it could veto appointments to boards of guardians – therefore making it difficult for the parishes that opposed it.
This made implementation of the act difficult as it was a physical impossibility to build a workhouse which could hold the large numbers affected by cyclical employment.
James Kay-Shuttleworth, an assistant commissioner supported the introduction of the Poor Law Amendment Act in the North and believed that pauperism was caused by the "recklesness [sic] and improvidence of the native population [and the] barbarism of the Irish.