# Department of Trade and Industry (United Kingdom)

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) was a United Kingdom government department formed on 19 October 1970. It was replaced with the creation of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills on 28 June 2007.

## History

The department was formed on 19 October 1970 through the merger of the Board of Trade and the Ministry of Technology, creating a new cabinet post of Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. Additionally, the department also took over the Department of Employment's former responsibilities for monopolies and mergers. However, in January 1974, the department's responsibilities for energy production were transferred to a newly created Department of Energy. On 5 March that year, following a Labour Party victory in the February 1974 general election, the department was split into the Department of Trade, the Department of Industry and the Department of Prices and Consumer Protection.

### Reformation

In 1983 the departments of Trade and Industry were reunited. The Department of Energy was re-merged back into the DTI in 1992, but various media-related functions transferred to the Department of National Heritage. Until it was succeeded in June 2007 the DTI continued to set the energy policy of the United Kingdom.
After the 2005 general election the DTI was renamed to the Department for Productivity, Energy and Industry, but the name reverted to Department of Trade and Industry less than a week later, after widespread derision, including some from the Confederation of British Industry.

### Later splits and mergers

In 2007, part of DTI merged into the new Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), while most of it was renamed as the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR); part of that would become the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) in 2008. The responsibilities which had gone to DIUS largely returned in 2009 with a remerger to create the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), though in 2016 the Department for International Trade (DIT) was split off. Energy returned in 2017 with the creation of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS); BEIS lasted until 2023 when this department was again split and mixed with other responsibilities, into the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).

## Structure

The DTI had a wide range of responsibilities. There were ultimately nine main areas covered by the DTI:
* Company Law
* Trade
* Business Growth
* Innovation
* Employment Law
* Regional Economic Development
* Energy
* Science
* Consumer Law.

### Emergent technology

From 1999 to 2005 it led the national E-Commerce Awards with InterForum, a not for profit membership organisation that helped British businesses to trade electronically. This aimed to encourage Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises to develop their business through the use of E-Commerce technologies.

### Corporate policing

It also had responsibility for investigating misconduct by company directors, in which role Private Eye repeatedly lampooned it as "the Department of Timidity and Inaction".

## Programs
### Small firms' Merit Award for Research and Technology

The Small firms' Merit Award for Research and Technology (SMART) was a discretionary business grant scheme run by the UK Department of Trade and Industry for a number of years in the 1980s and 1990s. The award was made to companies winning an annual competition (organised regionally) based on a judgement of the technical and market viability of research or technology development proposals; in essence the award represented seed-corn funding for innovative developments that had some market potential.
The scheme was generally considered to be very successful. In 2002 the scheme was changed from a competition to an award to any applicant who met minimum criteria. This led to several regions exhausting their budget. In 2005 the scheme was shut down and replaced with the Grant for Research and Development which was again a regional competition.