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 - 25 of 1283

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
T640/1150 Europe (Payment of the candidate's deposit at the European Assembly elections) Begins: 1989 Jan 10 Ends: 1989 Jan 31 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 7
T640/507 Administration (Staffing of the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate) Begins: 1987 Nov 26 Ends: 1987 Dec 9 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 8
T640/1141 Trade unions (Proposals for further reform of industrial relations law) Begins: 1989 Jul 11 Ends: 1989 Jul 11 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 8
T640/963 International (Banks in the Republic of Palau) Begins: 1988 Apr 13 Ends: 1988 Apr 25 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 8
T640/640 Monetary policy (The Royal Mint: designs for the proposed new 5, 10 and 50 pence pieces. With photograph) Begins: 1988 Aug 1 Ends: 1988 Aug 1 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 9
T640/166 Political (Chancellor's speeches 1986) Begins: 1986 Aug 4 Ends: 1986 Dec 5 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 10
T640/509 Economy (British bids for the Yueyang Power Station in China) Begins: 1987 May 22 Ends: 1987 Sep 1 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 10
T640/1147 Economy (Publication of Welsh companies' accounts in the Welsh language) Begins: 1988 Dec 19 Ends: 1989 Feb 8 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 11
T640/1166 Local Government (Local authority investment in gilts) Begins: 1989 Apr 10 Ends: 1989 Apr 14 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 11
T640/1293 Europe (Renewal of the financial protocols with Malta and Cyprus) Begins: 1989 Mar 15 Ends: 1989 Mar 17 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 11
T640/1368 Administration (New Grade 2 post in the Central Statistical Office (CSO)) Begins: 1989 Apr 11 Ends: 1989 May 9 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 11
T640/749 Economy (The egg industry) Begins: 1988 Dec 12 Ends: 1988 Dec 19 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Personal & Confidential Pages: 12
T640/1049 NHS (Chief Executive of the National Health Service (NHS) Management Board) Begins: 1988 Nov 22 Ends: 1988 Dec 1 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 12
T640/1260 Budget (Budget 1989: surplus stocks of duty-paid two and three star petrol) Begins: 1988 Apr 18 Ends: 1989 Jul 3 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 13
T640/1299 Administration (Sponsorship of departmental reports) Begins: 1989 May 19 Ends: 1989 Jul 14 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 13
T639/73 Monetary policy (Niehans Report on sterling overvaluation - minutes, correspondence) Part A Begins: 1981 Feb 16 Ends: 1981 Mar 18 Date of release: 2012 Classification: Confidential Pages: 14
T639/254 International (Chancellor's Riyadh meeting, Jan 1983; IMF Interim Committee in Washington, Feb 1983) Begins: 1983 Jan 10 Ends: 1983 Feb 14 Date of release: 2012 Classification: Confidential Pages: 14
T640/748 Public spending (Clearance and replanting of woods following the storm of 1987) Begins: 1988 Mar 2 Ends: 1988 May 25 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Personal & Secret Pages: 14
T640/1101 Monetary policy (New Government Broker at the Bank of England) Begins: 1989 Aug 3 Ends: 1989 Sep 25 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 14
T640/985 International (Drought in the United States of America) Begins: 1988 Jul 11 Ends: 1988 Jul 22 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Restricted Pages: 14
T640/435 Public spending (Appointment of Secretary and Comptroller-General of the National Debt Commissioners) Begins: 1987 Jun 16 Ends: 1987 Jul 24 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 15
T640/1244 Economy (Ferranti International Signal PLC: suspension of trading) Begins: 1989 Sep 12 Ends: 1989 Sep 25 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 15
T640/480 Privatisation (Water industry privatisation) Begins: 1986 Dec 17 Ends: 1987 Mar 12 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Personal & Secret Pages: 16
T640/508 Privatisation (The National Nuclear Corporation selling-off of shares) Begins: 1987 Sep 21 Ends: 1987 Dec 24 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 16
T640/1140 Economy (Cabinet Office: home affairs; the change to British summer time) Begins: 1989 Sep 27 Ends: 1989 Oct 3 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 16
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