Catalogue description Records of the Prices and Incomes Divisions, their predecessors and successors

Following the creation of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in 1970, the Prices and Incomes Division initially comprised part of the DTI's Industrial and Commercial Policy Division 3. In 1973, when the Fair Trading Act revised the constitution of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission and established the Office of Fair Trading, the consumer protection policy responsibilities of the DTI, hitherto exercised by the Industrial and Commercial Policy Division 3, were transferred to a Consumer Protection Branch and a Fair Trading Division.

In 1974, the Department of Prices and Consumer Protection was established to consolidate and expand, under a separate Secretary of State, government activities for guarding consumer interests, which had previously been the concern of the DTI. The new Department took over the relevant Divisions of its predecessor, and some responsibilities relating to home safety and safety of consumer goods from the Home Office. The Department's establishment, accounting, information, legal and regional services were provided by the appropriate divisions of the DTI.

Both the Consumer Credit Branch and Fair Trading Division of the DTI were inherited by the Department of Prices and Consumer Protection. The Consumer Credit Branch was responsible for formulating policy on consumer credit and for regulations on the use of hire purchase. It liaised with the Consumer Credit Division of the Office of Fair Trading. The Fair Trading Division covered policy on monopolies and mergers, restrictive trade practices, trade descriptions and marks, consumer advice services and complaints. In 1974 it also acquired form the Home Office responsibilities relating to home safety, the safety of consumer goods and the sale of fireworks. A Consumer Safety Unit was established in the Division, probably in 1976.

The Prices Policy Divisions were developed from the prices interests of the DTI's Prices and Incomes Division. One Division was concerned with general prices and counter inflation policy, especially in connection with the Price Code and the Price Commission; the other with price regulation and information, the administration of food subsidies, and the relationship between price control and industrial policy.

The Department of Prices and Consumer Protection was abolished in 1979.