Records of the Accountant General's Division

Division within POWE

1939-1972

Records relating to the financial administration of the mining industry.

Registered files of the Accountant General's Division are in POWE 43, with the Division's briefs on the appropriation and other accounts, especially with reference to the nationalised industries, in POWE 71. Papers of the Valuation and Compensation Division are in POWE 35, with records of Central Valuation Board in POWE 42

Records reflecting the activities of the District Valuation Boards are in POWE 39

Public Record(s)

English

• Ministry of Fuel and Power, Accountant General's Division, 1942-1957
• Ministry of Power, Accountant General's Division, 1957-1969

4 series

Topics

Mining and quarrying

The Accountant General's Division dealt with all financial work of the Ministry. It prepared the annual estimates and the appropriation and other accounts, and provided advice on bills and orders relating to the Ministry. It also helped the Minister over giving approval to capital development programmes of the nationalised fuel industries and the raising of loans needed to implement them. It was also involved with the appointment of auditors for the boards of these industries, directed their form of accounts and laid these before Parliament. A Contracts Branch within the Division supervised the placing of governmental contracts, especially in relation to the petroleum industry.

After the passing of the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, process of nationalising the coal industry necessitated the determination of compensation to coal owners. The payment of this compensation proved a complex and long-winded process. Eventually, a Valuation and Compensation Division was created within the Accountant General's Division to handle the enormous amount of paperwork arising from the business of transferring assets.

As a result of the recommendations of the Greene Tribunal, set up under Section 10(3) of the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, the total amount of compensation to be awarded to the Valuation Districts on nationalisation was determined. The Valuation Districts comprised the mining regions of the coal industry as they had been organised under private ownership.

Also under this 1946 Act, a Central Valuation Board was set up to apportion the total compensation awarded. Once the total amount payable to coal owners had been decided, the Board had to apportion the aggregate amount between twenty-one valuation districts based on the mining regions of the coal industry as organised under private ownership. The membership of the Central Valuation Board was made up as follows: A legally qualified person, appointed in consultation with the Lord Chancellor, to act as chairperson;Two other independent persons, one of whom, at the discretion of the Minister, should be able to act as temporary chairperson if or when the appointed chairperson was absent or unable to act. These persons were not to be associated with mining interests in any way;Five other persons, two of whom were to be qualified accountants connected with colliery concerns, and two having knowledge and experience of colliery activities.

The main duty of the Central Valuation Board was to apportion this aggregate amount of compensation among the Valuation Districts. The determining Regulations of the Board were effective from 14 October 1946 (Statutory Rules and Orders (S.R.O.) 1946 No. 1573 and S. R.O. 1947 No. 732).

Private hearings were held by the board, at which the owners' representatives submitted their claims related to the interests being transferred; witnesses could be produced. Exhibits were also taken into account, comprising such items as plans showing geographical location, number of persons employed in a colliery and the manshifts worked, comparative output as between different districts and capital expenditure in terms of cost per ton of output.

District associations submitted claims to the Board which made a final allocation in February 1949.Once this task was completed each district had to determine the amounts to be paid in individual cases. District Valuation Boards were constituted in June 1947 for this purpose, but could not start work until the compensation units had been finally determined.

A panel of referees was established from which individuals could be selected to review the decisions of the District Boards. Apart from distributing the district apportionment, the District Valuation Boards were also required to determine the value of company assets not included as part of their 'coal industry value'. These were determined under compensation units by the District Boards; the sums involved directly related to the value of the unit for subsidiary purposes.

In this way the compensation received by the individual coal company in part comprised this valuation of subsidiary assets and in part their fraction of the overall district coal industry value as defined by the appropriate District Valuation Board. Not surprisingly, this complex process, when combined with the appeals procedure against valuation, resulted in much delay. The District Valuation Boards became involved in determining compensation for loss resulting from these delays for a five year period, dating from 1 January 1947.