Gas Act 1986
Public General Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Gas Act 1986 (c. 44) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that created the framework for privatisation of the gas supply industry in Great Britain. The legislation replaced the British Gas Corporation (government or state ownership) with British Gas plc (private ownership). The Act also established a licensing regime, a Gas Consumers’ Council, and a regulator for the industry called the Office of Gas Supply (OFGAS).
Background
The liberalisation and privatisation of the energy markets in the United Kingdom began under the tenure of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Government in the 1980s. This has been called the Thatcher-Lawson agenda, due to the key role of Nigel Lawson, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1983–89) in the Thatcher ministry. There was a perceived need to reduce the inefficient state control of the energy sector and to introduce a market-oriented system through privatisation. Access to the energy market would be given to more organisations, improving competition and reducing prices for the consumer.
Provisions
The act received royal assent on 25 July 1986. The long title of the act is:
An Act to provide for the appointment and functions of a Director General of Gas Supply and the establishment and functions of a Gas Consumers' Council; to abolish the privilege conferred on the British Gas Corporation by section 29 of the Gas Act 1972; to make new provision with respect to the supply of gas through pipes and certain related matters; to provide for the vesting of the property, rights and liabilities of the British Gas Corporation in a company nominated by the Secretary of State and the subsequent dissolution of that Corporation; to make provision with respect to, and to information furnished in connection with, agreements relating to the initial supply of gas won under the authority of a petroleum production licence; and for connected purposes.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Gas Act 1986” as public General Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as public General Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q100159357. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1986, 1983 and 1972.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Gas Act 1986”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Gas Act 1986 primary sources, Gas Act 1986 archive and Public research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Gas Act 1986”?
- Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Gas Act 1986” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.