The Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977 is an
Act of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...
that
nationalised large parts of the UK
aerospace
Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and astrona ...
and
shipbuilding
Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befo ...
industries and established two corporations,
British Aerospace
British Aerospace plc (BAe) was a British aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire. Formed in 1977, in 1999 it purchased Marcon ...
and
British Shipbuilders (s.1).
Nationalisation of the two industries had been a
manifesto
A manifesto is a published declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party or government. A manifesto usually accepts a previously published opinion or public consensus or promotes a ...
commitment of the
Labour Party in the
February 1974 United Kingdom general election and was part of the programme of the
1974–1979 Labour government. It met immediate opposition from the industries, including from Labour politician and
Vickers
Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public in 18 ...
chairman
Lord Robens.
The nationalisation was announced in July 1974 but the compensation terms were not announced until March 1975.
[Lauterpacht (1987) ''p.''440] The
bill
Bill(s) may refer to:
Common meanings
* Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States)
* Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature
* Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer
* Bill, a bird or animal's beak
Plac ...
had its
first reading
A reading of a bill is a stage of debate on the bill held by a general body of a legislature.
In the Westminster system, developed in the United Kingdom, there are generally three readings of a bill as it passes through the stages of becoming, ...
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
Hybrid may refer to:
Science
* Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding
** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species
** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two dif ...
. The bill was rejected by the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
on three separate occasions.
Michael Heseltine
Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, (; born 21 March 1933) is a British politician and businessman. Having begun his career as a property developer, he became one of the founders of the publishing house Haymarket. Heseltine served ...
used the mace in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
to show his outrage at the Labour Party winning the final vote due in part to its failure to comply with the traditional requirements of a parliamentary
pair
Pair or PAIR or Pairing may refer to:
Government and politics
* Pair (parliamentary convention), matching of members unable to attend, so as not to change the voting margin
* ''Pair'', a member of the Prussian House of Lords
* ''Pair'', the Frenc ...
. It was possible that the provisions of the
Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 could have been employed to enact it, but the legislation was approved following concessions by the government, including deletion of the twelve 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):
*
British Aircraft Corporation
*
Hawker Siddeley Aviation
Hawker Siddeley was a group of British manufacturing companies engaged in aircraft production. Hawker Siddeley combined the legacies of several British aircraft manufacturers, emerging through a series of mergers and acquisitions as one of onl ...
*
Hawker Siddeley Dynamics
Hawker or Hawkers may refer to:
Places
*Hawker, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra
*Hawker, South Australia, a town
*Division of Hawker, an Electoral Division in South Australia
*Hawker Island, Princess Elizabeth Land, Antarctica
...
*
Scottish Aviation
Scottish Aviation Limited was an aircraft manufacturer based at Prestwick, Scotland.
History
The company was founded in 1935. Originally a flying school operator, the company took on maintenance work in 1938.
During the Second World War, Scott ...
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):
Shipbuilders
*
Ailsa Shipbuilding Company
Ailsa Shipbuilding Company was a Scottish shipbuilding company based in Troon and Ayr, Ayrshire.
History
The company was founded in 1885 by the 3rd Marquess of Ailsa along with Peter James Wallace and Alexander McCredie.
In 1902 the Ailsa yard ...
,
Troon
Troon is a town in South Ayrshire, situated on the west coast of Ayrshire in Scotland, about north of Ayr and northwest of Glasgow Prestwick Airport.
Troon has a port with freight services and a yacht marina. Up until January 2016, P&O Ferrie ...
(acquired in 1978, merged with
Ferguson Shipbuilders
Ferguson may refer to:
Places
Canada
*Ferguson Avenue (Hamilton, Ontario)
*Ferguson, British Columbia
*Mount Ferguson (Ontario), a mountain in Temagami, Ontario
United States
*Ferguson, a meteorite fall in North Carolina
*Ferguson, Arkansas
* F ...
in 1981 to form
Ferguson-Ailsa)
*
Appledore Shipbuilders
Appledore Shipbuilders is a shipbuilder in Appledore, North Devon, England.
History
The Appledore Yard was founded in 1855 on the estuary of the River Torridge. The Richmond Dry Dock was built in 1856 by William Yeo and named after Richmond ...
,
Appledore Appledore may refer to:
Places England
* Appledore, Kent
** Appledore (Kent) railway station
* Appledore, Mid Devon, near Tiverton
* Appledore, Torridge, North Devon, near Bideford U.S.A.
* Appledore Island, off the coast of Maine In fiction
* App ...
*
Austin & Pickersgill
Austin & Pickersgill is a shipbuilding company formed in Sunderland in 1954.
History
Corporate history
Austin & Pickersgill was formed in Sunderland in 1954 by the merger of S.P. Austin & Son Ltd (founded by Samuel Peter Austin in c.1826) and ...
,
Sunderland
*
Brooke Marine
Brooke Marine (also known as J.W. Brooke & Co. and Brooke Yachts) was a Lowestoft-based shipbuilding firm.[Brooke ...](_blank)
,
Lowestoft
*
Cammell Laird Shipbuilders,
Birkenhead
Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liver ...
*
Clelands Shipbuilding Company
Clelands Shipbuilding Company was a leading British shipbuilding company. The Company was based in Wallsend was nationalised by the British Government. It was founded in 1864 by John and Thomas Cleland, and operated until it was acquired by Swa ...
,
Wallsend
Wallsend is a town in North Tyneside, England, at the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall. It has a population of 43,842 and lies east of Newcastle upon Tyne.
History Roman Wallsend
In Roman times, this was the site of the fort of Segedunum. This f ...
*
Ferguson Shipbuilders
Ferguson may refer to:
Places
Canada
*Ferguson Avenue (Hamilton, Ontario)
*Ferguson, British Columbia
*Mount Ferguson (Ontario), a mountain in Temagami, Ontario
United States
*Ferguson, a meteorite fall in North Carolina
*Ferguson, Arkansas
* F ...
,
Port Glasgow (merged with Ailsa in 1981 to form Ferguson-Ailsa)
*
Goole Shipbuilding & Repairing Company,
Goole
Goole is a port town and civil parish on the River Ouse in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The town's historic county is the West Riding of Yorkshire.
According to the 2011 UK census, Goole parish had a population of 19,518, an increa ...
*
Govan Shipbuilders
Govan Shipbuilders Ltd (GSL) was a British shipbuilding company based on the River Clyde at Glasgow in Scotland. It operated the former Fairfield Shipyard and took its name from the Govan area in which it was located.
History
The company wa ...
,
Govan
Govan ( ; Cumbric?: ''Gwovan'?''; Scots: ''Gouan''; Scottish Gaelic: ''Baile a' Ghobhainn'') is a district, parish, and former burgh now part of south-west City of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated west of Glasgow city centre, on the south ba ...
*
Hall, Russell & Company
Hall, Russell & Company, Limited was a shipbuilder based in Aberdeen, Scotland.
History
Brothers James and William Hall, Thomas Russell, a Glasgow engineer, and James Cardno Couper founded the company in 1864 to build steam engines and boile ...
, Aberdeen
*
Robb Caledon Shipbuilders
Henry Robb, Limited, known colloquially as Robbs, was a Scottish shipyard, shipbuilding company based at Leith, Leith Docks in Edinburgh. Robbs was notable for building small-to-medium sized vessels, particularly tugboat, tugs and dredgers.
Hist ...
, (comprising
Henry Robb
Henry Robb, Limited, known colloquially as Robbs, was a Scottish shipyard, shipbuilding company based at Leith, Leith Docks in Edinburgh. Robbs was notable for building small-to-medium sized vessels, particularly tugboat, tugs and dredgers.
Hist ...
,
Leith
Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by '' Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world.
The earliest ...
and
Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company
The Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Limited was a major Scottish shipbuilding company based in Dundee, Scotland that traded for more than a century and built more than 500 ships.
History
W.B. Thompson CBE (1837 - 1923) founded th ...
, Dundee)
*
Scott Lithgow
Scott Lithgow, Limited was a Scottish shipbuilding company.
History
The Company was formed in 1967 by the merger of Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company and Lithgows. Scott Lithgow was based in Port Glasgow and Greenock on the lower Cl ...
,
Greenock
Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council areas of Scotland, council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh of barony, burgh within the Counties of Scotland, historic ...
(comprising
Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company
Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Limited, often referred to simply as Scotts, was a Scottish shipbuilding company based in Greenock on the River Clyde. In its time in Greenock, Scotts built over 1,250 ships.
History
John Scott fou ...
&
Lithgows
Lithgows Limited is a family-owned Scottish company that had a long involvement in shipbuilding, based in Kingston, Port Glasgow, on the River Clyde in Scotland. It has a continued involvement in marine resources.
History Founding
The Company ...
)
*
Smiths Dock Company
Smith's Dock Company, Limited, often referred to simply as Smith's Dock, was a British shipbuilding company.
History
The company was originally established by Thomas Smith who bought William Rowe's shipyard at St. Peter's in Newcastle upon Tyn ...
,
Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area.
Until the early 1800s, the a ...
*
Sunderland Shipbuilders
William Doxford & Sons Ltd, often referred to simply as Doxford, was a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, British shipbuilder, shipbuilding and marine engineering company.
History
William Doxford founded the company in 1840. From 18 ...
,
Sunderland (incorporating
William Doxford & Sons
William Doxford & Sons Ltd, often referred to simply as Doxford, was a British shipbuilding and marine engineering company.
History
William Doxford founded the company in 1840. From 1870 it was based in Pallion, Sunderland, on the River Wea ...
,
Pallion
Pallion is a suburb and electoral ward in North West Sunderland, in Tyne and Wear, England. Most of the buildings in the area were built during the Victorian Era and consist of large terraced houses built for shipbuilders, but also smaller one-s ...
)
*
Swan Hunter Shipbuilders Limited,
Wallsend
Wallsend is a town in North Tyneside, England, at the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall. It has a population of 43,842 and lies east of Newcastle upon Tyne.
History Roman Wallsend
In Roman times, this was the site of the fort of Segedunum. This f ...
(later renamed Swan Hunter) – also incorporating
John Readhead & Sons
John Readhead & Sons was a shipyard on the River Tyne in South Shields, Tyne and Wear, England.
History
John Readhead and John Softley founded the business in 1865 in South Shields as Readhead and Softley. The first ship they built was a small ...
,
South Shields
South Shields () is a coastal town in South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the south bank of the mouth of the River Tyne. Historically, it was known in Roman times as Arbeia, and as Caer Urfa by Early Middle Ages. According to the 20 ...
and
Wallsend Slipway and Engineering Company,
Wallsend
Wallsend is a town in North Tyneside, England, at the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall. It has a population of 43,842 and lies east of Newcastle upon Tyne.
History Roman Wallsend
In Roman times, this was the site of the fort of Segedunum. This f ...
*
Vickers Limited Shipbuilding Group,
Barrow in Furness (renamed Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Limited – VSEL)
*
Vosper Thornycroft
VT Group is a privately held United States defense and services company, with its origins in a former British shipbuilding group, previously known as Vosper Thornycroft. The British part of VT Group was integrated into Babcock International in t ...
,
Woolston
Woolston may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Woolston, Cheshire, a village and civil parish in Warrington
* Woolston, Devon, on the list of United Kingdom locations: Woof-Wy near Kingsbridge, Devon
* Woolston, Southampton, a city suburb in Ham ...
and
Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council.
Portsmouth is the most dens ...
*
Yarrow Shipbuilders
Yarrow Shipbuilders Limited (YSL), often styled as simply Yarrows, was a major shipbuilding firm based in the Scotstoun district of Glasgow on the River Clyde. It is now part of BAE Systems Surface Ships, owned by BAE Systems, which has also o ...
(YSL),
Scotstoun
Marine diesel manufacturers
*
Barclay Curle and Company,
Whiteinch
Whiteinch ( gd, Innis Bhàn) is an area in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated directly north of the River Clyde, between the Partick and Scotstoun areas of the city. Whiteinch was at one stage part of the burgh of Partick, until that ...
*
George Clark & NEM,
Sunderland
*
Hawthorn Leslie and Company
R. & W. Hawthorn, Leslie and Company, Limited, usually referred to as Hawthorn Leslie, was a shipbuilder and locomotive manufacturer. The company was founded on Tyneside in 1886 and ceased building ships in 1982.
History
The company was formed ...
,
Hebburn
Hebburn is a town in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, England. It governed under the borough of South Tyneside; formerly governed under the county of Durham until 1974 with its own urban district from 1894 until 1974. It is on the south ...
*
John G. Kincaid & Company,
Greenock
Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council areas of Scotland, council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh of barony, burgh within the Counties of Scotland, historic ...
Note:
Harland and Wolff
Harland & Wolff is a British shipbuilding company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It specialises in ship repair, shipbuilding and offshore construction. Harland & Wolff is famous for having built the majority of the ocean liners for the W ...
,
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...
was state-owned but did not form part of British Shipbuilders.
Compensation
Section 35 of the act provided for compensation to the original owners. Compensation was to be by
government bond
A government bond or sovereign bond is a form of bond issued by a government to support public spending. It generally includes a commitment to pay periodic interest, called coupon payments'','' and to repay the face value on the maturity dat ...
s against a valuation of the
shares over a relevant period of six months up to the Labour Party's election on 28 February 1974. For companies listed on the
London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...
, this was the average quoted price over the relevant period. For non-listed shares, the government would
negotiate with a shareholders' representative to establish a hypothetical
market
Market is a term used to describe concepts such as:
*Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand
*Market economy
*Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market
Geography
*Märket, an ...
valuation. If no agreement was reached, the shareholders had recourse to
arbitration (ss.36–41).
However, section 39 controversially included a provision to make deductions from this base value if a company had dissipated its
asset
In financial accountancy, financial accounting, an asset is any resource owned or controlled by a business or an economic entity. It is anything (tangible or intangible) that can be used to produce positive economic value. Assets represent value ...
s by declaring
dividend
A dividend is a distribution of profits by a corporation to its shareholders. When a corporation earns a profit or surplus, it is able to pay a portion of the profit as a dividend to shareholders. Any amount not distributed is taken to be re-in ...
s in anticipation of nationalisation, or by other means.
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
His Majesty's Advocate, known as the Lord Advocate ( gd, Morair Tagraidh, sco, Laird Advocat), is the chief legal officer of the Scottish Government and the Crown in Scotland for both civil and criminal matters that fall within the devolved p ...
for Scotland and the
Lord Chancellor
The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. The ...
for the remainder of the UK.
[Application 9482/81] 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
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
. There was also provision for
judicial review
Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incompat ...
of the original compensation offer.
Having been described, in 2006, by the
Council on Tribunals as "rarely convened/moribund", the tribunal was abolished in March 2013 under the UK Government's
public bodies reforms.
European Court of Human Rights
The
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
had been critical of the compensation proposals but, after being elected in the
1979 United Kingdom general election did not change the arrangements. All shareholders had been paid out by the end of 1980.
In 1980 unsuccessful applications to the
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...
over the compensation were made by Vosper, Vickers, Yarrow and shareholders including
English Electric,
M&G Securities,
Prudential, and Sir
William Lithgow.
They complained, in the end unsuccessfully, that the compensation scheme breached several articles of the
European Convention on Human Rights
The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is an international convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by t ...
, namely:
[Lauterpacht (1987) ''p.''441]
*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.
References
Sources
*''
Whitaker's Almanack
''Whitaker's'' is a reference book, published annually in the United Kingdom. The book was originally published by J Whitaker & Sons from 1868 to 1997, then by The Stationery Office until 2003, and then by A & C Black which became a wholly owned ...
'' 1978, ''pp''356–365
----
*
*''Lithgow and Others'', in Lauterpacht, E. (1987) ''International Law Reports'', London: Cambridge University Press, , ''pp''438–536
----
{{English law types
Aviation history of the United Kingdom
Water transport in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1977
1977 in law
Former nationalised industries of the United Kingdom
History of transport in the United Kingdom
Nationalisation in the United Kingdom
Shipbuilding in the United Kingdom