Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1940

What did the Act achieve?

This Act extended the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939 for another year, and allowed Parliament to carry on extending it annually. It increased the Government's emergency powers even further.

Broadly, the Act required each person to make themselves and their property available to the Government for the war effort, and allowed the Government to punish those who went against the defence regulations.

But some historians feel that the Act was not especially useful to the war effort because it did not give the Government enough power – instead, they argue that it was more a symbolic gesture designed to intimidate the enemy.