Catalogue description Records inherited and created by the Ministry of Transport and successors, Establishment, General and Organisation Divisions

Ministry of Transport and successors, Establishment, General and Organisation Divisions,1919-1997

The Establishment Division of the Ministry of Transport was formed in 1919 as a branch of the secretarial and Legal Department. The Establishment Branch was was responsible for staffing, establishment matters and office services throughout the ministry.

In 1932, control of transport undertakings administered directly by the department was assigned to the branch, but was later transferred to the Harbour and Canal branches of the Secretarial Department. In 1940, on the dissolution of the Secretarial Division, its public relations and information work passed to a new Information Division. In 1950 a new General Division was established. This division was responsible for establishment matters, general work concerning more than one division, and parliamentary work.

The Information Division, known during the later years of the Second World War as the Public Relations Division, was incorporated into the Establishment group of divisions in 1954.

On the mergers with the Ministry of Shipping in 1941 and the Ministry of Civil Aviation in 1953, the Establishment Divisions of those departments were also absorbed within the Establishment group. By 1961 this group consisted of the following divisions: Establishment Staffing, Establishment Organisation (which had absorbed the General Division), Office Services, Information and Welfare.

In 1944, following the publication of the sixteenth report of the Select Committee on National Expenditure Organisation and Control of the Civil Service, an Organisation and Methods Branch was established, taking on work previously carried out for the ministry by the Establishment Officer's Division of the Treasury (renamed the Treasury Organisation and Methods Division in 1941).

In 1949 the Branch became known as the Organisation and Methods Branch of Organisation and Methods Training and Office Services. The Branch's controlling directorates were successively: Establishments and General (until 1956), the Common Services Branch of the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation (1956-1961), Establishments and Organisation (1961-1970) and Management Services (1970-1985).

In July 1985 the Branch was merged with sections of the Computing Division to form the Efficiency Services Division, now part of Business Efficiency Services.

In 1990, the branch became part of the Central Services Command of the Department of Transport. In 1997, the responsibilities of the Department of Transport were transferred to the Department of the Environment Transport and the Regions.