Carltona Ltd v Commissioners of Works [1943] 2 All ER 560

During the Second World War, government officials requisitioned a factory belonging to Carltona under the Defence (General) Regulations 1939. The relevant power belonged to the Commissioners of Works. An Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Works and Planning took the decision on their behalf, rather than a commissioner considering the matter personally. Carltona disputed the validity of that arrangement. Its challenge therefore required the Court of Appeal to consider who could act when legislation entrusted a power to a minister or government department, and whether the official's involvement invalidated this requisition.

Whether the minister’s statutory power to requisition property could lawfully be exercised through a responsible departmental official without an express delegation provision in the legislation.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the company’s challenge to the wartime requisition. Lord Greene MR explained that powers conferred on ministers are ordinarily exercised through responsible officials in their departments. Government could not function if each decision required the minister’s personal attention. The official’s decision was treated as the minister’s decision within that administrative structure, and the minister remained constitutionally responsible. The objections to the requisition notice and exercise of the regulation did not establish invalidity. The decision is not a universal permission to pass statutory powers to any outsider, and its historical discussion of judicial restraint should not be substituted for the full range of modern grounds of judicial review.

Statutory functions conferred on a minister are ordinarily exercisable by appropriate departmental officials acting under ministerial responsibility, unless the statute indicates personal exercise or another restriction. The official’s act is treated as the minister’s act within that governmental structure.

Carltona explains how government departments can exercise powers formally assigned to a minister. It rests on the practical organisation of government and ministerial responsibility to Parliament. It is generally analysed as action through the minister’s departmental machinery, rather than an unrestricted power to delegate statutory authority to anyone. The statute may require personal exercise or indicate another limitation. Later decisions must therefore be considered where the nature of the function, wording or identity of the official puts the usual assumption in doubt.