of Hard Rock was primarily because of its campaign. The CND's Scottish secretary Ian Davison called it the organisation's first major victory and it has been called "probably the biggest single success of the peace movement". The government blamed the Labour NEC for the cancellation. In the wake of the cancellation of Hard Rock Michael Heseltine, secretary of state for defence, established Defence Secretariat 19 within the ministry to better explain to the public the government's policy on the nuclear deterrent and multilateral disarmament. The government introduced the Civil Defence (General Local Authority Functions) Regulations in 1983. These compelled local authorities to support national civil defence exercises and imposed financial penalties for them and individual councillors if they did not comply. The regulations also gave the government the power to appoint special commissioners to run the exercises within the local authorities. The civil service proposed running Hard Rock again after the Conservative victory in the 1983 general election but it was never run. That same year Labour peer Willie Ross, Baron Ross of Marnock claimed, in the House of Lords, that the Ministry of Defence was glad the exercise had been cancelled as it would have showed up widespread inadequacies in local civil defence planning. A Home Office investigation in 1988 found a widespread refusal by local authorities to implement the Civil Defence (General Local Authority Functions) Regulations 1983. References Nuclear warfare United Kingdom nuclear command and control Cold War history of the United Kingdom 1982 in the United Kingdom