Catalogue description Ministry of Supply and the Board of Trade: Iron and Steel Nationalisation Papers

On the outbreak of war in 1939 an Iron and Steel Control was established in the Ministry of Supply to regulate the supply and distribution of iron and steel. The staff were engaged on loan from the industry through firms in the British Iron and Steel Federation and from the British Iron and Steel Corporation, a body closely allied to the Federation.

The control, which had been exercised under the Defence Regulations, was confirmed by the Supplies and Services (Transitional Powers) Act 1945, but was superseded by the establishment of the Iron and Steel Board in 1946. At the same time an Iron and Steel Division was set up in the Ministry to consider, inter alia, the nationalisation programme. When the Iron and Steel Board was abolished in 1949 its staff reverted to the Ministry as its Iron and Steel Division. The existing division of that name was renamed the Iron and Steel (General) Division.

With the nationalisation of the Iron and Steel industry under the provisions of the Iron and Steel Act 1949 and the establishment of the Iron and Steel Corporation in 1950, the two Iron and Steel divisions merged into one. The industry was denationalised in 1953. In July 1955 the Ministry of Supply's responsibility for iron and steel was transferred to the Board of Trade. The industry remained denationalised until the establishment of a National Steel Corporation under the Iron and Steel Act 1967, which also revived certain provisions of the Iron and Steel Act 1949.