Catalogue description Home Office, Mines Department and Inspectorate and Successors: Annual Reports of Inspectors of Mines

The inspectors' reports, which are printed and published, are confined to the various regions covered by inspectors but later a general report, statistical table or summary precedes them. The reports were published as Command papers until 1919, as a parliamentary paper in 1920, and subsequently as Departmental publications.

The changes in the official status of the reports occurred when the powers of the Secretary of State, Home Department, relating to Mines and Quarries were transferred to the Board of Trade by an Order in Council dated 6 December 1920. The reports, which prior to 1920 had been submitted to the Secretary of State, were now submitted to the Secretary for Mines of the new Mines Department of the Board of Trade.

From 1921 to 1938 the records include annual reports of the Secretary of Mines. With the establishment in 1942 of the Ministry of Fuel and Power which absorbed with other functions the Mines and Petroleum Departments of the Board of Trade, the reports were submitted to the Minister.

See also Entry Books for Accounts in HO 81

For Mines Inspectorate records see HO 95

For records of the Safety and Health Division of the Ministry of Fuel and Power and predecessors and records of the Inspectorate of Mines and Quarries see POWE 8

Home Office, Mines Department and Inspectorate, 1843-1920

Mines Department, Mines Inspectorate, 1920-1942

Ministry of Fuel and Power, Mines Inspectorate, 1942-1957

Ministry of Power, Mines Inspectorate, 1957-1969

From 1963 Ministry of Power