Catalogue description Records of the Ministry of Production and related bodies

A Central Supply Department in the Ministry of Supply executed the decisions of the Ministerial Priority Committee at the start of the war, and also those of the Production Council, which succeeded the Committee in May 1940. Area Boards, consisting of officials of supply and labour departments and (from July 1940) employer and trade union representatives, were set up (initially under the Ministry of Supply), to provide local co-ordination of production and supplies, to transmit information to and from central government, and to settle by agreement any local disputes affecting output, were set up at the same time as the Council, and were directed by the Council's Industrial Capacity Committee.

The Production Council was replaced by a Production Executive in December 1940, consisting of the Ministers of Labour, Supply and Aircraft Production, the First Lord of the Admiralty and the President of the Board of Trade, and, from June 1941, the Minister of Works. In February 1942, after difficulties had arisen in its relationship with the Supply Departments, and criticism had been made of its effectiveness, it was replaced by the Ministry of Production.

On 10 February 1942 Beaverbrook was appointed Minister of Production. The office was intended to be as much diplomatic as executive; the minister was to take to himself the co-ordinating powers and duties of the Production Executive (excepting those relating to manpower, which remained with the Ministry of Labour), and to represent British production interests in dealings with the USA and the USSR. The sovereignty of the supply and labour departments in their fields was explicity reserved. Beaverbrook resigned within a fortnight, and Oliver Lyttelton held the post for the rest of the war.

Beaverbrook's terms of reference were withdrawn but provided the preliminary guidelines for the new minister, who swiftly developed the supposedly non-departmental Office of the Minister of Production into an effective Ministry of Production, formally constituted on 13 July 1942. The ministry's functions were then conceived as being the central planning of programmes of production, the supply of materials, and ensuring the maximum use of productive conformity.

The machinery with which these functions were exercised changed frequently during the ministry's three-year existence, but it normally included the Minister of Production's Council (sometimes called the Minister's Production Council or simply the Production Council), the Joint War Production Staff, and divisions dealing with programmes and planning, raw materials, production, internal services, regional organisation, and (latterly) non-munitions supplies.

An important function of the Minister of Production was the integration of British production with wider Allied programmes and requirements. This was effected by various bodies consisting of the British and American (and sometimes other) ministers or their representatives.

In May 1945, as war ended, the Minister of Production was appointed, additionally, president of the Board of Trade, and the ministry was absorbed by the board in October of the same year.

The Joint War Production Staff (JWPS) was established on 23 March 1942. Its purpose was 'to see that sufficient weapons of the right kind are available at the right time - in other words, to provide a link between strategy and production'. Technically a Cabinet committee chaired by the Minister of Production, the JWPS was in practice closely related to his ministry; its supporting Joint War Production Planning Group, consisting of programmes directors from the various departments concerned, was chaired by Sir Walter Layton, who was not only the minister's executive deputy on the JWPS, but also chief adviser to the ministry's Programmes and Planning Division.

This division was established to collate and analyse munitions reports for the JWPS, but gradually increased its scope to provide an extensive information service for the minister and for the whole department in both London and Washington.