Emergency Powers Act 1920 - Use of The Act

Use of 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 Act was extensively used during the General Strike of 1926, after a state of emergency was proclaimed on April 30 1926 on account of the "cessation of work in coal mines" and emergency regulations were promulgated therewith and continued in force long after the general strike had ceased. The use of the Act has been described as instrumental in the successful resolution of the strike in the government's favour.

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This Act was amended by the Emergency Powers Act 1964 and superseded by the Civil Contingencies Act 2004.