Ministry of Supply and the Board of Trade: Iron and Steel Nationalisation Papers

BT 231

1945-1960

Discussion papers, bill papers, parliamentary drafts and records of debates on the postwar nationalisation of iron and steel and on the Iron and Steel Bill Act 1949, originating from the Ministry of Supply.

The series also includes a history of the nationalisation and denationalisation of the industry, and personal notes by S S Wilson, who was responsible for the bill in that Ministry. Wilson was Under Secretary in the Establishment and Organisation Division of the Ministry of Supply, 1947-1950, Secretary of the Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain, 1950-1953, and Secretary of the Iron and Steel Holding and Realisation Agency, 1953-1960.

Includes documents relating to the Board of Trade's Liberated Areas Division, which was involved with the United Nations Relief and Rehabiliation Administration.

Some records of the Board of Trade relating to the iron and steel industries are in BT 255

Treasury files on iron and steel nationalisation are in T 228

Records of the Iron and Steel Control are in POWE 5

Public Record(s)

English

• Ministry of Supply, Iron and Steel Board, 1946-1949
• Ministry of Supply, Iron and Steel Control, 1939-1946
• Ministry of Supply, Iron and Steel Division, 1949-1951
• Ministry of Supply, Iron and Steel Division, 1951-1955

33 files and volumes

Open

Topics

Trade and commerce

Iron, steel and metals

On the outbreak of war in 1939 an Iron and Steel Control was established in the Ministry of Supply to regulate the supply and distribution of iron and steel. The staff were engaged on loan from the industry through firms in the British Iron and Steel Federation and from the British Iron and Steel Corporation, a body closely allied to the Federation.

The control, which had been exercised under the Defence Regulations, was confirmed by the Supplies and Services (Transitional Powers) Act 1945, but was superseded by the establishment of the Iron and Steel Board in 1946. At the same time an Iron and Steel Division was set up in the Ministry to consider, inter alia, the nationalisation programme. When the Iron and Steel Board was abolished in 1949 its staff reverted to the Ministry as its Iron and Steel Division. The existing division of that name was renamed the Iron and Steel (General) Division.

With the nationalisation of the Iron and Steel industry under the provisions of the Iron and Steel Act 1949 and the establishment of the Iron and Steel Corporation in 1950, the two Iron and Steel divisions merged into one. The industry was denationalised in 1953. In July 1955 the Ministry of Supply's responsibility for iron and steel was transferred to the Board of Trade. The industry remained denationalised until the establishment of a National Steel Corporation under the Iron and Steel Act 1967, which also revived certain provisions of the Iron and Steel Act 1949.