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 26 - 50 of 1283

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
T640/9 Budget (Budget speech 1984) Begins: 1984 Mar 9 Ends: 1984 Mar 13 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 389
T640/1051 Political (Chancellor of the Exchequer's speeches) Begins: 1989 Jan 25 Ends: 1989 Oct 19 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 92
T640/303 Budget (1987 Finance Bill) Begins: 1986 Aug 11 Ends: 1987 Feb 18 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 210
T640/304 Budget (1987 Finance Bill) Begins: 1987 Feb 3 Ends: 1987 Mar 20 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 192
T640/305 Budget (1987 Finance Bill) Begins: 1987 Mar 23 Ends: 1987 May 8 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 139
T640/306 Budget (1987 Finance Bill) Begins: 1987 May 10 Ends: 1987 May 29 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 109
T640/307 Budget (1987 Finance Bill) Begins: 1987 Jun 12 Ends: 1987 Jul 1 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 141
T640/308 Budget (1987 Finance Bill) Begins: 1987 Jul 2 Ends: 1987 Jul 22 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 134
T640/585 Budget (Chevening 1988) Begins: 1987 Jul 8 Ends: 1988 Jan 11 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 47
T640/309 Budget (Finance Bill 1987) Begins: 1986 Oct 28 Ends: 1987 Apr 3 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 170
T640/310 Budget (Finance Bill 1987) Begins: 1987 Apr 6 Ends: 1987 Apr 16 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 160
T640/311 Budget (Finance Bill 1987) Begins: 1987 Apr 21 Ends: 1987 Apr 22 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 119
T640/312 Budget (Finance Bill 1987) Begins: 1987 Apr 24 Ends: 1987 Apr 27 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 191
T640/313 Budget (Finance Bill 1987) Begins: 1987 Apr 28 Ends: 1987 May 6 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 172
T640/314 Budget (Finance Bill 1987) Begins: 1987 Sep 14 Ends: 1987 Nov 20 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 144
T640/315 Budget (Finance Bill 1987) Begins: 1987 Nov 20 Ends: 1987 Dec 30 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 177
T640/316 Political (Housing policy) Begins: 1987 Jan 27 Ends: 1987 Mar 19 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 175
T640/317 Budget (Miscellaneous papers) Begins: 1987 Jan 5 Ends: 1987 Jan 30 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 155
T640/318 Budget (Miscellaneous papers) Begins: 1987 Feb 2 Ends: 1987 Feb 12 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 197
T640/320 Budget (Miscellaneous papers) Begins: 1987 Mar 2 Ends: 1987 Mar 25 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 209
T640/322 Budget (Miscellaneous papers) Begins: 1987 Mar 30 Ends: 1987 Apr 9 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Personal & Secret Pages: 215
T640/323 Budget (Miscellaneous papers) Begins: 1987 Apr 10 Ends: 1987 May 29 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 122
T640/325 Budget (Miscellaneous papers) Begins: 1987 Jul 1 Ends: 1987 Jul 14 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 156
T640/326 Budget (Miscellaneous papers) Begins: 1987 Jul 20 Ends: 1987 Jul 27 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Personal & Secret Pages: 187
T640/327 Budget (Miscellaneous papers) Begins: 1987 Jul 28 Ends: 1987 Jul 31 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Personal & Secret Pages: 152
Per page: