Archive

Treasury Private Office papers

In 2012 www.margaretthatcher.org uncovered through an FOI request the existence of a vast cache of secret papers stored at H.M. Treasury, some 4,850 files from the Private Office of successive Chancellors (and Chief Secretaries) between 1979 and 1997.

The files contain the most politically sensitive documents from the very top of the Treasury, the small circle of Ministers, Special Advisers and Private Secretaries, which were stored, when in use, only a few doors from the Chancellor's room for convenience and security. Their like is rarely found at the National Archives in Kew. These documents are of deep historical interest, an intact Private Office collection in scale and importance exceeded only by that from No.10 itself, relied on by Treasury ministers when writing their memoirs. It is an un-looted tomb in Whitehall's Valley of the Kings – the Palace accountant's rather than the Pharaoh's, but well worth the ticket.

When it first revealed the existence of the files the Treasury stated that it intended to destroy the whole lot, waiting politely till the various Chancellors died off. It was claimed, quite mistakenly, that the contents of these files are either ephemeral or copied elsewhere, and so should not be considered part of "the definitive policy record" maintained by its various divisions for archiving at Kew.

Later, and following representations, officials denied that destruction was ever intended. The first section, covering the Chancellorship of Sir Geoffrey Howe, 1979-83, was released at TNA in 2016; the files have been digitised and uploaded to the list below. The bulk of Nigel Lawson's files, 1983-89, were released at TNA in early 2018 and have also been digitised; they are being uploaded progressively and many are now available on this page. The spreadsheet giving the full list 1979-97 can be downloaded below.

Although some of the files relate to 1979 and 1980, the filing system glimpsed here only got into full operation in 1981, so earlier records are something of a legacy from what went before and are significantly fewer.

The Treasury has also released Nick Ridley's surviving Private Office files as Financial Secretary to the Treasury. These are diferent in form to the Chancellor's files, consisting largely of photocopies of minutes and meetings records relating to directly to Ridley with very little incoming correspondence. They are not listed in the spreadsheet already mentioned, so must derive from the 'unstructured' files already referred to. They are in rough chronological order – a sort of day file.

How to use this page?

Below are links to the downloadable files in numerical order. The original file names have been modified to convey content more readily.

An average file has around 100 pages.

Some of these downloads are very big, as large as 50MB, though most are in the range 1-10MB.

Where documents within a file have been selected for the site database, they can easily be viewed by clicking the file name link.

Selected documents in site database

Documents from the files selected for the site database can be read here. Progressively more will be uploaded over time.

Showing items 1 - 50 of 1282

Items per page
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
T639/1 Political (Notes from special advisers, briefings on US, etc) 1979 May 30 1979 Dec 19 2012 Secret 89
T639/2 Europe (Visit of West German Chancellor, May 1979; Belgian PM, Spt 1979 - briefing, meeting records) 1979 May 7 1979 Sep 13 2012 Secret 137
T639/3 Political (Chancellor's morning meetings ['Prayers'], 1979 - meeting records) 1979 May 11 1979 Dec 21 2012 Secret 158
T639/4 Monetary policy (Relaxation of Exchange Controls - minutes, drafts, correspondence, meeting records) (Part 2) [see T639/10 for Part 1 of this file] 1979 Jun 7 1979 Jul 24 2012 Secret 197
T639/5 Monetary policy (Relaxation of Exchange Controls - minutes, correspondence, meeting records) (Part 3) 1979 Jul 17 1979 Oct 22 2012 Secret 166
T639/6 Public spending (Social Security; decision to uprate long-term benefits historically & in line with prices - minutes, correspondence) Part A 1979 May 11 1979 May 17 2012 Confidential 61
T639/7 Public spending (Social Security; decision to uprate long-term benefits historically & in line with prices - minutes, correspondence) Part B 1979 May 18 1979 Jun 21 2012 Secret 77
T639/8 Budget (1979 - minutes, correspondence, meeting records) Part A 1979 May 8 1979 Jul 3 2012 Secret 144
T639/9 Monetary policy (Chancellor's meeting with the PM, 5 Nov 1979) 1979 Oct 22 1979 Nov 5 2012 Secret 120
T639/10 Monetary policy (Relaxation of Exchange Controls - minutes, drafts, correspondence, meeting records) (Part 1) [see T639/4 for part 2 of this file] 1979 May 4 1979 Jun 5 2012 Secret 169
T639/11 Political (Chancellor's speech in economic debate, 28 Nov 1979 - briefing, notes, speech drafts; two items from 1977 also) 1977 Sep 27 1979 Nov 28 2012 Secret 243
T639/12 Monetary policy ("Gilt Strike", Nov 1979) Part A 1979 Nov 2 1979 Nov 15 2012 Personal & Secret 339
T639/13 Political (presentation of economic policy (Jun 1979 budget; post-budget; European budget Oct 1979; ITV pay, BBC cuts) - briefing, articles, letters, notes, drafts) 1979 May 10 1979 Dec 20 2012 Personal & Secret 286
T639/14 Personal (Refurbishment of No.11 Downing Street) 1979 Apr 30 1980 Mar 19 2012 Unclassified 89
T639/15 Public spending (1979-80 - minutes from special advisers & Treasury ministers; meeting records; MTFS) 1979 Jul 23 1980 Jul 10 2012 Secret 110
T639/16 Administration (Handling of ministerial correspondence - Private Office policy) 1979 Aug 10 1980 Jan 28 2012 Confidential 52
T639/17 Political (Chancellor's morning meetings ['Prayers'], 1980 - meeting records) 1980 Jan 9 1980 Sep 17 2012 Secret 104
T639/18 Europe (ECOFIN, Oct 1980 - briefing, circulated papers) 1980 Jan 24 1980 Oct 17 2012 Confidential 121
T639/20 Monetary policy (Relaxation of Exchange Controls, follow-up justification - minutes, speech drafts) Part C 1979 Oct 22 1980 Sep 25 2012 Secret 127
T639/21 Public spending (Pay of non-industrial civil servants - minutes, correspondence, meeting records) Part A 1979 Dec 21 1980 Dec 17 2012 Confidential & Management in confidence 152
T639/22 Public spending (Social Security; decision to uprate long-term benefits historically & in line with prices - minutes, correspondence) Part C 1979 Jul 26 1980 Jan 30 2012 Secret 48
T639/23 Public spending (Social Security Bill removing earnings link, etc - minutes, correspondence) Part A 1979 May 22 1980 Mar 13 2012 Secret 52
T639/25 Political (Chancellor's morning meetings ['Prayers'], 1981 - meeting records) 1981 Jan 20 1981 Dec 9 2012 Secret 46
T639/26 Political (Chancellor's visit to Scotland, Jan 1981 - brief & debrief) 1981 Jan 28 1981 Feb 2 2012 Unclassified 40
T639/27 Political (Opening to the public of the cabinet war rooms) 1981 Jun 26 1982 Jan 4 2012 Unclassified 23
T639/28 Political (Chancellor's Party Political Broadcast, December 1981 - drafts, briefing) 1981 Nov 6 1981 Dec 8 2012 Restricted 57
T639/29 Political (Conservative Research Department "Mid-term Report", 1981 - draft, comments) 1981 Jul 2 1981 Jul 21 2012 Secret 96
T639/30 Political (Government Strategy - Hoskyns paper, Dec 1980; Chequers meeting, Jan 1981; Thorneycroft paper, Jun 1981) 1980 Dec 22 1981 Jun 23 2012 Secret 65
T639/31 Public spending (Social Security & Child Benefit) 1979 Oct 29 1981 Mar 4 2012 Confidential 81
T639/32 International (Visit of the Sultan of Brunei - briefing) 1981 Apr 30 1981 May 8 2012 Confidential 26
T639/33 International (Visit of the President & Finance Minister of Ghana - briefing, meeting records) 1981 May 8 1981 May 15 2012 Confidential 81
T639/34 Europe (ECOFIN/Social Affairs ['Jumbo'] Council, Jun 1981 - briefing, Chancellor's notes) 1981 Apr 6 1981 Jun 11 2012 Confidential 114
T639/35 Public spending (1980-81 - minutes from special advisers & Treasury ministers; meeting records; strategy) 1980 Jul 15 1981 Jan 16 2012 Secret 124
T639/37 International (Ottawa G7 Summit, Jul 1981 - briefing) 1981 Apr 30 1981 Jul 13 2012 Secret 24
T639/38 International (Ottawa G7 Summit, Jul 1981 - briefing, meeting record, notes) 1981 Jul 14 1981 Jul 22 2012 Confidential 123
T639/39 Europe (Chancellor's visit to Paris, Jan 1981 - briefing, notes, speech) 1981 Jan 22 1981 Jan 27 2012 Confidential 107
T639/42 International (Visit of Venezuelan Finance Minister, May 1981 - briefing) 1981 Apr 30 1981 May 5 2012 Confidential 25
T639/43 International (PM's visit to the US, Feb 1981; Chancellor's visit, May 1981 - briefing) 1981 Feb 11 1981 May 8 2012 Secret 223
T639/44 Europe (Visit of President & Vice President of European Investment Bank, May 1981 - briefing) 1981 Apr 10 1981 May 5 2012 Confidential 27
T639/45 Monetary policy (Chancellor's appearance before Treasury Select Committee, 25 Mar 1981 - briefing) 1981 Mar 4 1981 Mar 21 2012 Confidential 236
T639/46 Monetary policy (Chancellor's appearance before Treasury Select Committee, 25 Mar 1981 - briefing) 1981 Mar 23 1981 Mar 25 2012 Confidential 227
T639/47 Monetary policy (Chancellor's Mais Lecture, May 1981 - briefing, notes, drafts) 1981 Jan 14 1981 May 7 2012 Unclassified 246
T639/48 Monetary policy (Chancellor's Mais Lecture, May 1981 - drafts, text, earlier lectures) 1981 May 8 1981 May 12 2012 Unclassified 94
T639/49 Europe (European Council [Luxembourg], Jun 1981 - briefing) 1981 Jun 16 1981 Jun 26 2012 Confidential 269
T639/50 Europe (Chancellor's visit to The Hague, Jun 1981 - speech, drafting) 1981 May 21 1981 Jun 3 2012 Confidential 125
T639/51 Europe (ECOFIN, Jul 1981 - full briefing, circulated papers) 1981 Jun 17 1981 Jul 3 2012 Confidential 107
T639/52 Europe (Informal ECOFIN [Breda], Apr 1981 - briefing; items on EC budget) 1981 Jan 23 1981 Apr 2 2012 Confidential 119
T639/53 Europe (Chancellor's visit to Frankfurt to meet West German Finance Minister, Jul 1981 - briefing, records of conversation) 1981 Jul 7 1981 Jul 20 2012 Confidential 49
T639/54 International (Meeting of G5 finance ministers & central bank governors in London, Apr 1981 - arrangements, briefing) 1981 Mar 31 1981 Apr 10 2012 Confidential 56
T639/55 International (Visit of Mexican Finance Minister, Apr 1981 - briefing, record of conversation) 1980 Jul 30 1981 Apr 14 2012 Confidential 66
Items per page