Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977 Totally Explained

Everything about The Aircraft And Shipbuilding Industries Act totally explained

The Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that nationalised large parts of the UK aerospace and shipbuilding industries and established two corporations, British Aerospace and British Shipbuilders (s.1).
Nationalisation of the two industries had been a manifesto commitment of the Labour Party in the United Kingdom general election, February 1974. It met immediate opposition from the industries, including from Labour politician and Vickers Chairman Lord Robens The nationalisation was announced in July 1974 but the compensation terms were not announced until March 1975. The Bill had its first reading on 30 April 1975 but ran out of parliamentary time in that session. Subsequent Bills had a stormy passage through parliament. Ship repairing was originally included in its scope but removed because of the findings of examiners that the Bill was hybrid. The Bill was rejected by the House of Lords on three separate occasions. It was possible that the provisions of the Parliament Acts could have been employed to enact it, but the legislation was approved following concessions by the Government, including deletion of the 12 ship repairing companies.

List of assets subsumed by British Aerospace

The assets of the following companies vested in British Aerospace on 29 April 1977 (ss.19(1) and 56(1)/ Sch.1):

List of assets subsumed by British Shipbuilders

The assets of the following companies vested in British Shipbuilders on 1 September 1977 (ss.19(1) and 56(1)/ Sch.2):

Ailsa Shipbuilding Company, Troon (acquired in 1978, merged with Ferguson Shipbuilders in 1981 to form Ferguson-Ailsa)

Appledore Shipbuilders, Appledore

Austin & Pickersgill, Sunderland

Brooke Marine, Lowestoft

Cammell Laird Shipbuilders, Birkenhead

Clelands Shipbuilding Company, Wallsend

Ferguson Shipbuilders, Port Glasgow (merged with Ailsa in 1981 to form Ferguson-Ailsa)

Goole Shipbuilding & Repairing Company, Goole

Govan Shipbuilders, Govan

Hall, Russell & Company, Aberdeen

Robb Caledon Shipbuilders, (comprising Henry Robb, Leith and Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Dundee)

Scott Lithgow, Greenock (comprising Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company & Lithgows)

Smiths Dock Company, Middlesbrough

Sunderland Shipbuilders, Sunderland (incorporating William Doxford & Sons, Pallion)

Swan Hunter Shipbuilders Limited, Wallsend (later renamed Swan Hunter) - also incorporating John Redhead and Sons, South Shields and Wallsend Slipway and Engineering Company, Wallsend

Vickers Limited Shipbuilding Group, Barrow in Furness (renamed Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Limited - VSEL)

Vosper Thornycroft, Woolston and Portsmouth

Yarrow Shipbuilders (YSL), Scotstoun

Barclay Curle and Company, Whiteinch

George Clark & NEM, Sunderland

Hawthorn Leslie and Company, Hebburn

John G. Kincaid & Company, Greenock Note: Harland and Wolff, Belfast was state-owned but didn't form part of British Shipbuilders.

Compensation

Section 35 of the Act provided for compensation to the original owners. Compensation was to be by government bonds against a valuation of the shares over a relevant period of 6 months up to the Labour Party's election on 28 February 1974. For companies listed on the London Stock Exchange, this was the average quoted price over the relevant period. For non-listed shares, the government would negotiate with a shareholders' representative to establish an hypothetical market valuation. If no agreement was reached, the shareholders had recourse to arbitration (ss.36-41).

Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Arbitration Tribunal

Section 42 of the Act established the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Arbitration Tribunal to hear appeals over valuation but not challenges to the fairness of the statutory formula. The Tribunal was governed by rules made respectively by the Lord Advocate for Scotland and the Lord Chancellor for the remainder of the UK. There was a right of appeal to the Court of Session in Scotland and to the Court of Appeal in the remainder of the UK (Sch.7), with a possible further appeal to the House of Lords. There was also provision for judicial review of the original compensation offer. As of 2008, the Tribunal continues in existence but was described by the Council on Tribunals in 2006 as "Rarely Convened/ Moribund". On 1 November 2007, the Tribunal came under the supervision of the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council and will be rationalised as part of the reforms put in place by the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007.

European Court of Human Rights

The Conservative Party had been critical of the compensation proposals but, after being elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1979 didn't change the arrangements. All shareholders had been paid out by the end of 1980.
They complained, in the end unsuccessfully, that the compensation scheme breached several articles of the European Convention on Human Rights, namely:

Art.1 of Protocol 1, right to peaceful enjoyment of one's possessions;

Art.6(1), right to a fair trial;

Art.13, right to an effective remedy;

Art.14, prohibition of discrimination;

Art.17, prohibition of abuse of rights;

Art.18, limitations on permitted restrictions of rights.Further Information

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