Emergency Powers Act 1920

The Emergency Powers Act 1920 was passed by the Lloyd George Coalition Government and gave the sovereign power to declare an emergency by proclamation in certain circumstances, by Order in Council, and gave the government limited emergency powers. It made permanent the powers of the war-time Defence of the Realm Act. However this Act did not apply to Ireland.

Overview
The exact grounds for such a proclamation by the monarch are defined in the Act as:

"...any action has been taken or is immediately threatened by any persons or body of persons of such a nature and on so extensive a scale as to be calculated, by interfering with the supply and distribution of food, water, fuel, or light, or with the means of locomotion, to deprive the community, or any substantial portion of the community, of the essentials of life..."

Upon a proclamation Parliament must meet within five days and the Act gave His Majesty in Council, by Order, to make regulations to secure the 'essentials of life to the community' and gave the relevant Secretaries of State the power for the 'preservation of the peace' and the 'essentials of life' as defined above. Such regulations would be laid before Parliament as soon as they are pronounced and would expire in seven days, unless Parliament decided otherwise, of being laid before Parliament. A proclamation of this sort could be in force for no more than one month.

Anyone who broke these regulations, the Act says:

"...shall be imprisonment with or without hard labour for a term of three months, or a fine of one hundred pounds, or both such imprisonment and fine, together with the forfeiture of any goods or money in respect of which the offence has been committed."

The Act forbade regulations which amounted to 'compulsory military service or industrial conscription' and ruled out regulations which would forbid 'any person or persons to take part in a strike, or peacefully to persuade any other person or persons to take part in a strike'. Regulations could not allow punishment by either fine or prison without trial.

Use of the Act
When the Act was first passed it was heavily criticised by the Labour Party as being 'dictatorial', however in later years Labour used the Act.

The Act was first put into use in 1921 when the Triple Alliance (the predecessor of the TUC) called a strike over a wage dispute. The Lloyd George government declared a state of emergency and sent troops to the strikers' areas. Three days later on the 21st April the Triple Alliance called off the strike, which became known as 'Black Friday'.

The Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald was tempted to use the Act in 1924 when the dockers and tramwaymen went on strike. The first prolonged use of this Act was in the General Strike of 1926 when it was in force for eight months, though the strike itself only lasted nine days.

Also, during 1948 and 1949 there were lengthy unofficial strikes, particularly in the docks, so the Labour Attlee Government implemented this Act to proclaim a state of emergency and used soldiers as strike-breakers by getting them to unload boats in London, Liverpool and Avonmouth. The Conservative government used the Act during the 1955 rail strike and it was also used by Labour under Harold Wilson during the seamen's strike of 1966.

During the Conservative government of Edward Heath there were five declarations of emergency under this Act, by far the most any government. The first was in July 1970 over a dockers strike, the second in December 1970 over an electricians strike, the third in February 1972 over a miners strike, the fourth in August 1972 over another dockers strike and the fifth time in October 1973, which lasted for four months.

In the total time it was on the statute book this Act was used twelve times, the last time being in 1974 and mainly used in times of industrial unrest (i.e. strikes).

This Act was amended by the Emergency Powers Act 1964 and replaced by the Civil Contingencies Act 2004.