Catalogue description Board of Trade and successors: Alkali Inspectorate and successors: Unregistered Records

Under the Alkali Act 1863, an Alkali Inspector and four sub-inspectors were appointed to curb the discharge into the air of hydrochloric gas from 'alkali works'. In 1874 the Inspector became the Chief Inspector. The Chief Inspector was statutorily responsible for the standards set, and maintained, by the Inspectorate and reported directly to the Permanent Secretary of his Department. For the first sixty years of its existence the Inspectorate was solely concerned with the heavy chemicals industry, but from the 1920s onwards its responsibilities were expanded, culminating in the Alkali Order 1958. This placed all major heavy industries which emitted smoke, grit, dust and fumes under the supervision of the Inspectorate.

From 1863 to 1872 the Inspectorate came under the Board of Trade, from 1873 to 1918 the Local Government Board, from 1919 to 1951 the Ministry of Health, from 1951 to 1970 the Ministry of Housing and Local Government and from 1970 to 1975 the Department of the Environment. The Chief Inspector's independence disappeared when the Inspectorate was transferred to the Health and Safety Executive in 1975. The Inspectorate was known as Industrial Air Pollution Inspectorate from 1983 to 1987 and became Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Pollution (HMIP) when it was transferred back to the Department of the Environment in 1987. HMIP became part of the Environment Agency on 1 April 1996.