Iron and Steel Act 1949
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1949 c. 72 |
| Year | 1949 |
Iron and Steel Act , 1949
(12, 13 & 14 Geo. 6) CHAPTER 72
An Act to provide for the establishment of an Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain and for defining their functions, and for the transfer to that Corporation of the securities of certain companies engaged in the working, getting and smelting of iron ore, the production of steel, and the shaping of steel by rolling, and of certain property and rights held by a Minister of the Crown or Government department; for the licensing of persons engaged in any such activities; for co-ordinating the activities of the Corporation, the National Coal Board and the Area Gas Boards relating to carbonisation; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
[24th November 1949]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same as follows:—
Part I.
The Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain.
1 The Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain.
(1) For the purposes of this Act, there shall be a public authority to be called the Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain (in this Act referred to as ‘the Corporation’).
(2) The Corporation shall consist of a chairman and not less than six nor more than ten other members, and the chairman and all other members shall be appointed by the Minister from amongst persons appearing to him to be persons who have had wide experience of, and shown capacity in, the production of iron ore or iron or steel, industrial, commercial or financial matters, administration or the organisation of workers.
(3) The Minister shall not appoint any member of the Corporation before the first day of October, nineteen hundred and fifty.
(4) Every member of the Corporation shall hold and vacate his office in accordance with the terms of his appointment and shall, on ceasing to be a member, be eligible for re-appointment:
Provided that any member may at any time by notice in writing to the Minister resign his office.
(5) A person shall be disqualified for being appointed or being a member of the Corporation so long as he is a member of the Commons House of Parliament.
(6) Before appointing a person to be a member of the Corporation, the Minister shall satisfy himself that that person will have no such financial or other interest as is likely to affect prejudicially the exercise or performance by him of his functions as a member of the Corporation and the Minister shall also satisfy himself from time to time with respect to every member of the Corporation that he has no such interest; and any person who is, or whom the Minister proposes to appoint and who has consented to be, a member of the Corporation shall, whenever requested by the Minister so to do, furnish to him such information as the Minister considers necessary for the performance by the Minister of his duties under this subsection.
(7) A member of the Corporation who is in any way directly or indirectly interested in a contract made or proposed to be made by the Corporation, or in any contract made or proposed to be made by a subsidiary of the Corporation which is brought up for consideration by the Corporation, shall, as soon as possible after the relevant circumstances have come to his knowledge, disclose the nature of his interest at a meeting of the Corporation; and the disclosure shall be recorded in the minutes of the Corporation, and the member shall not take any part after the disclosure in any deliberation or decision of the Corporation with respect to that contract.
(8) The Minister may appoint one or more members of the Corporation to be deputy chairman or deputy chairmen of the Corporation.
(9) The Corporation—
(a ) shall pay to their members such remuneration (whether by way of salaries or fees) and such allowances as the Minister may, with the approval of the Treasury, determine; and
(b ) on the retirement or death of any of their members as to whom the Minister may, with the approval of the Treasury, determine that such provision should be made, shall pay to or in respect of them such pensions as he may so determine.
(10) The Minister shall, as soon as possible after the passing of this Act, lay before each House of Parliament a statement of the remuneration and allowances that are or will be payable under the last preceding subsection to the members of the Corporation, and, if any subsequent determination by him under the last preceding subsection involves any departure from the terms of the said statement, or if a determination by him under that subsection provides for the payment of a pension to or in respect of any member of the Corporation, the Minister shall as soon as possible after the determination lay a statement thereof before each House of Parliament.
(11) The provisions of the First Schedule to this Act shall have effect with respect to the Corporation.
2 Powers of the Corporation.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Corporation shall have power—
(a ) to hold such interests in companies as vest in them under Part II of this Act, and to acquire by agreement and to hold interests in any company whose activities, including the activities of any subsidiary of the company, consist wholly or mainly of activities which any publicly-owned company (as defined in section fifty-nine of this Act) is immediately before the acquisition authorised by its memorandum of association or, as the case may be, by its charter of incorporation or other charter, to carry on;
(b ) to form, or take part in forming, any company for the purpose of the carrying on by the company of any activities which any publicly-owned company is immediately before the formation of the new company so authorised to carry on, or of the exercise by the new company of any powers conferred on the Corporation by the following provisions of this section, or of the acquisition and holding by the new company of such interests in other companies as the Corporation have power to acquire and hold; and
(c ) to exercise all rights conferred by the holding of interests in companies:
Provided that—
(i) the Corporation shall not, without the consent in writing of the Minister, exercise their powers under this subsection so as to bring any company into public ownership or form a publicly-owned company, if the consequence thereof would be to increase the sum of the activities which the publicly-owned companies are authorised as aforesaid to carry on;
(ii) nothing in this subsection shall prejudice the pow of investment conferred on the Corporation by Part IV of this Act.
(2) The Corporation shall have power—
(a ) to conduct research into any matters affecting the activities which any publicly-owned company is for the time being authorised as aforesaid to carry on, and to assist other persons conducting such research;
(b ) to provide for the publicly-owned companies, or for any group of such companies, any services which in the opinion of the Corporation can conveniently be provided as common services for those companies or that group thereof.
(3) The Corporation shall have power, with the consent in writing of the Minister, to carry on any other activities which, at the time when the consent is given, any publicly-owned company is authorised as aforesaid to carry on.
(4) The Corporation shall have power to do any thing or to enter into any transaction (whether or not involving the expenditure, the borrowing in accordance with the provisions of this Act or the lending of money, the acquisition of any property or rights or the disposal of any property or rights) which in their opinion is calculated to facilitate the proper carrying on of their activities or the proper exercise of their powers under the preceding provisions of this section.
(5) Any reference in this section to interests in a company includes a reference to rights in respect of money lent to the company or guarantees given for the benefit of the company.
(6) For the avoidance of doubt it is hereby declared that the preceding provisions of this section relate only to the capacity of the Corporation as a statutory corporation, and nothing in the said provisions shall be construed as authorising the disregard by the Corporation of any enactment or rule of law.
3 General duty of the Corporation.
(1) It shall be the general duty of the Corporation so to exercise their powers as—
(a ) to promote the efficient and economical supply of the products of the activities specified in the first column of the Second Schedule to this Act, and to secure that those products are available in such quantities, and are of such types, qualities and sizes, and are available at such prices, as may seem to the Corporation best calculated to satisfy the reasonable demands of the persons who use those products for manufacturing purposes and to further the public interest in all respects;
(b ) to secure that neither the Corporation nor any publicly-owned company shall show undue preference to, or exercise unfair discrimination against, any such persons or any class thereof in the supply and price of those products, but without prejudice to such variations in the terms and conditions on which those products are supplied as may arise from ordinary commercial considerations or from the public interest; and
(c ) to secure the largest degree of decentralisation consistent with the proper discharge by the Corporation of their duties under the preceding provisions of this section and under any other provision of this Act.
(2) Nothing in this section shall be construed as imposing on the Corporation, either directly or indirectly, any form of duty or liability enforceable by proceedings before any...
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