Ministry of Labour and Predecessors: Correspondence

Before 1934 departmental files set aside for permanent preservation were allocated numbers in one of four preservation series, namely: Preservation 'A' series (1916-1933): The files in this series are departmental files of matters of general policy, including some of a date earlier than 1916 taken over from the Board of Trade. Included in this series are 'Industrial Relations' files (formerly Preservation Series 'I.R.') for the period 1918 to 1933, which relate to conciliation machinery, arbitration awards, the Industrial Court and similar subjects.Preservation 'B' series (1912-1933): The files in this series are classified under two sub-series: (1) 'General' sub-series files (1912-1917, with a few papers earlier than 1912) relating to labour exchanges, casual employment schemes, committees, tribunals and general employment policy; and (2) 'T.B.I.' sub-series files (1922-1933) relating to the Trade Boards Inspectorate, investigations and prosecutions.Preservation 'C' series (1922-1933): The files in this series are Establishment Branch papers.Preservation 'E' (OTB) series (1932-1933): The files in this series are papers relating to the Office of Trade Boards.

A file placed into a preservation series was allocated a number. The number consisted of the series lettercode, A, B, C, D etc. followed by a running number, 1, 2, 3 etc. followed by the year it was assigned to the preservation series, e.g. A132/1916. The number is now given in the former reference (Department) field for each item. It is worth noting the following: further files on the same subject were allocated the same number the date given as part of the number is the date that the first file on that subject was assigned to the preservation series, not necessarily the date of that file or any subsequent files on the same subject given the same number Given all the above, it is worth entering the preservation number of a relevant file (found in the former reference (Department) field) into the Go to Reference box as this may bring up other items with the same preservation number (and therefore on the same subject)