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Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act

Aircraft and Shipbuilding Act 1977
Long title An Act to provide for the establishment of two bodies corporate to be called British Aerospace and British Shipbuilders, and to make provision with respect to their functions; to provide for the vesting in British Aerospace of the securities of certain companies engaged in manufacturing aircraft and guided weapons and the vesting in British Shipbuilders of the securities of certain companies engaged in shipbuilding and allied industries; to make provision for the vesting in those companies of certain property, rights and liabilities; to provide for payments to British Aerospace and its wholly owned subsidiaries, for the purpose of promoting the design, development and production of civil aircraft; and for connected purposes.
Citation 1977 c. 3
Introduced by Secretary of State for Industry Tony Benn 30 April 1975
Territorial extent England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland
Dates
Royal assent 17 March 1977
Commencement 17 March 1977
Other legislation
Amended by British Aerospace Act 1980
Status: Current legislation
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended

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 1911 and 1949 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.

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

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


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