Records of the Establishments Division and predecessors

Division within POWE

1887-1973

Records relating to the central administration of the mining industry, including matters of organisation and staffing.

Records of the Establishments Division are in POWE 10. A small number of personal files are in POWE 49

Public Record(s)

English

• Ministry of Fuel and Power, Establishment Division, 1942-1944
• Ministry of Fuel and Power, Establishments Directorate, 1944-1947
• Ministry of Fuel and Power, Establishments Division, 1947-1957
• Ministry of Power, Establishments Division, 1957-1969

2 series

Topics

Mining and quarrying

The Establishments Division had its origins in the Mines Department, where the Division dealt with all questions of organisation and staffing and with the Department's parliamentary, legal and intelligence work. It handled the transfer of responsibilities for petroleum from the Board of Trade in 1921 and 1928. It included a Foreign Trade section which assisted the coal export trade by providing advice on all questions of foreign policy in relation to coal supplies at home and abroad. Its Inland Trade Section was chiefly responsible for the administration of the central and district schemes for regulating output and prices in industry under the Coal Mines Act 1930. It also maintained a skeleton organisation for dealing with the conservation and distribution of coal in times of emergency and held a watching brief over the commercial side of the industry.

Following its transfer to the Ministry of Fuel and Power in 1942, the Division was responsible for staffing, accommodation, central and sub-registries, the official library and had general oversight of the regional organisation of the Ministry.