Catalogue description Records inherited and created by the Ministry of Transport and successors, Rates and Charges Division

Ministry of Transport and successors, Rates and Charges Division, 1940-1962

A Rates and Charges Division was created in the Ministry of Transport in 1940.

From 1873, powers to regulate railway charges had been vested in the Railway and Canal Commission and, after 1921, in the Railway Rates Tribunal. Charges relating to trams, trolley vehicles, docks, harbours, canals and inland navigations were subject to statutory maxima, while the charges of public service vehicle operators were governed, after the Road Traffic Act 1930, by conditions attached to road service licences issued by the Traffic Commissioners.

With the outbreak of war in 1939 the powers of the Railway and Canal Commission and the Railway Rates Tribunal were suspended and the regulation of charges of all statutory undertakings was vested in the minister of Transport.

Governmental policy during this period was aimed to restrict price increases. Under the Defence (General) Regulations1939, the Minister was given control over all charges made by inland transport undertakings and a new Rates and Charges Division was set up to ensure that uniform measures were taken to regulate these charges.

In 1940, the new division took over duties formerly carried out by the administrative division appropriate to each form of transport, and by the Rates Fares and Charges branch of the Secretarial Division. The new division had two branches: one covering railway and canal charges and the other those for road transport and docks. The minister's powers were modified by the Transport Act 1947, under which the charges of the British Transport Commission were governed generally by the Transport Tribunal.

In 1962 the division was dissolved and its residual functions dispersed among the divisions responsible for the various forms of transport.