ABSTRACT
The statutes are often interpreted publicly as if Ministers have a responsibility to use their statutory financial powers to secure the financial viability of the industries and a satisfactory return on the public funds invested in them. The original Morrisonian or Baldwin-Morrisonian Board was not far removed from the public trust, since Herbert Morrison seems to have seen the influence of Ministers as persuasive rather than mandatory. The statutory powers of Ministers have increased and much less have been heard of the nationalized industries as public trusts. Law, constitutional habits, departments’ habits of work and the sheer volume of pressures on their time, limit the scope Ministers have to translate this fiction into fact. Ministers show much more interest in many of the policies and performances of the Boards than they might be expected to show in ‘ordinary’ public trusts. The Minister would then exercise his financial powers decisively in order to get an adequate return on capital.
