Commercial, Labour, and Statistical Department, Labour Branch CL&S/L

This series contains the papers of the Labour Branch of the Commercial, Labour, and Statistical Department, which are coded CL&S/L or L, and of the Labour Department which are also coded L. The files contain arbitration awards, reports of labour conditions in this country and abroad, Bill papers, requests for the Labour Gazette and other Board of Trade publications, and correspondence with labour bureaux.

See also the Commercial Department, LAB 7/2-4:

The Commercial Department of the Board of Trade was in 1886 given the duty of collecting and publishing labour statistics.

In 1893 it became the Commercial, Labour, and Statistical Department dealing with labour bureaux, the International Labour Office,and later administered the 1896 Conciliation Act, and the Labour Exchanges Act of 1909.

In 1910 the Labour and Statistical sections were taken away from the Commercial Department and joined with the newly formed Trade Boards Department to form the Labour Department.

In 1911 this department became responsible for unemployment insurance and the conciliation section was transferred to the new Chief Industrial Commissioner's Department.

In 1913 the Labour Department split into three: Labour Exchanges and Unemployment Insurance, (LE); Trade Boards, (TB); and Labour Statistics, (LS).