Catalogue description Ministry of Fuel and Power, Coal Division: Coal Distribution Costs Committee

The Coal Distribution Costs Committee was appointed by the Minister of Fuel and Power and the Minister of Commerce, Northern Ireland in 1956 following a Cabinet decision to set up independent enquiries into coal merchants' distribution costs and profit margins in Great Britain and N. Ireland respectively, following continued criticism, particularly from the miners, of the gap between pithead or production prices and the selling price to consumers, especially in the domestic market. (A similar enquiry had been set up in 1938, but had not reported because of the war).

The committee's chairman was Sir Thomas Robson, a former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. Its membership consisted of representatives from trade union, consumer, academic and industrial organisations. The committee was also expected to produce information of considerable value to the government and industry in considering the future of price controls, which had been in operation since 1939. Although merchants' profits had been reviewed periodically on a regional basis it was recognised by 1956 that a more comprehensive survey was needed. The committee collected both written and oral evidence and then published two reports in 1958, one for Great Britain and the other for Northern Ireland.