Harris Tweed Act

Scope and Content
Correspondence relating to the drafting and passage through parliament of the Harris Tweed Act. A great deal of the correspondence is between the HTA, W&J Burness (solicitors), and Dyson Bell Martin & Co. (parliamentary agents - solicitors licensed to draft and promote private bills). Other key correspondents include the Secretary of State for Scotland, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and Calum MacDonald (Western Isles MP).
The Harris Tweed Bill, later the Harris Tweed Act, is the piece of legislation that abolished the Harris Tweed Association (1909-1993) and created the Harris Tweed Authority (1993-present), and legally defined Harris Tweed. It gives Harris Tweed far more protection that it had previously - before this Act of Parliament its legal defence had relied on trade mark law. The Harris Tweed Bill (Acts of Parliament are known as bills before they pass into law) was drafted in 1990 and then introduced into the House of Lords as a private bill in 1991, but thanks to delays owing to its being notified to the European Commission, and the 1992 general election, the Bill did not receive Royal Assent until July 1993.
The folders are arranged in roughly choronological order.
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Scope and Content