Catalogue description Records of the Home Office, Explosives Inspectorate

The Explosives Department and Inspectorate was set up by the Explosives Act of 1875, the inadequacy of existing explosives legislation having been exposed by an explosion in a barge on the Regent's Canal in 1874. The act required the manufacture and keeping of gunpowder and other explosives to be licensed, the Home Secretary becoming responsible for licensing explosives factories and magazines and for the general administration of the act, advising local authorities who were responsible for licensing and registering premises where small quantities of explosives were kept.

The act was enforced by inspectors of explosives appointed by the Home Secretary and reporting annually to him. They were empowered to inspect premises and hold enquiries into accidents caused by explosives. Government establishments holding explosives were exempted.

The inspectors soon took on duties under the Petroleum Acts 1871 and 1879 and in relation to the criminal use of explosives. They also supplied advice to other government departments, particularly the Board of Trade, on explosives matters. Their office, which included assisting clerks, soon became known as the Explosives Department. Home Office administrative work in connection with explosives was performed by the Domestic Department and, after 1912, the Miscellaneous (E) Division.

During the First World War the inspectors became responsible for the supervision of explosives factories taken over by the War Office, the conveyance of explosives by road and rail, advising the Ministry of Munitions as to plans of national filling factories and inspecting them when erected, and advising as to the safety of national buildings.

The Explosives Inspectorate became a branch of the Fire Department in 1964 and was transferred to the newly-created Health and Safety Executive in 1975.