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
T640/1360/2 Budget (Budget 1989) Begins: 1989 Mar 14 Ends: 1989 Mar 14 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 200
T640/1360/1 Budget (Budget 1989) Begins: 1988 Oct 19 Ends: 1989 Mar 14 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Personal & Secret Pages: 291
T640/1358/2 Budget (Budget 1989; deals with sections of the Budget Speech) Begins: 1989 Mar 10 Ends: 2000 Mar 13 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 213
T640/1358/1 Budget (Budget 1989; deals with sections of the Budget Speech) Begins: 1989 Mar 7 Ends: 2000 Mar 10 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 371
T640/1357/2 Budget (Budget 1989; deals with tax section and economic section of Budget Statement) Begins: 1989 Feb 27 Ends: 2000 Feb 28 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 128
T640/1357/1 Budget (Budget 1989; deals with sections of the Budget Speech) Begins: 1989 Feb 15 Ends: 2000 Feb 27 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 323
T640/1356 Budget (Tobacco Advisory Council: Budget deputation) Begins: 1989 Jul 18 Ends: 1989 Oct 25 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Restricted Pages: 135
T640/1355/2 Budget (Budget statement: tax section) Begins: 1989 Mar 6 Ends: 1989 Mar 8 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 237
T640/1355/1 Budget (Budget statement: tax section) Begins: 1989 Feb 23 Ends: 1989 Mar 6 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 319
T640/1353 Economy (Employment) Begins: 1989 Oct 19 Ends: 1990 Mar 31 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 117
T640/1352 Economy (Employment) Begins: 1989 Sep 14 Ends: 1989 Oct 19 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 178
T640/1351 Economy (Employment) Begins: 1989 Feb 28 Ends: 1989 Sep 14 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Personal & Confidential Pages: 186
T640/1350/2 Economy (Profit-related pay) Begins: 1988 Sep 28 Ends: 1989 Dec 11 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 242
T640/1349/2 Economy (Industrial action) Begins: 1988 Sep 7 Ends: 1989 Aug 23 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Personal & Secret Pages: 159
T640/1348 Monetary policy (Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)) Begins: 1989 Sep 12 Ends: 1989 Oct 3 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 254
T640/1347 Monetary policy (Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)) Begins: 1989 Sep 8 Ends: 1989 Sep 8 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 227
T640/1346 Monetary policy (Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)) Begins: 1989 Aug 7 Ends: 1989 Sep 4 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 227
T640/1345 Monetary policy (Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)) Begins: 1989 Jul 21 Ends: 1989 Aug 4 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 271
T640/1344 Monetary policy (Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)) Begins: 1989 Jun 15 Ends: 1989 Jul 20 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Personal & Confidential Pages: 223
T640/1343 Monetary policy (Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)) Begins: 1989 Feb 10 Ends: 1989 Jun 14 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Restricted Pages: 220
T640/1338 Monetary policy (Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)) Begins: 1989 Oct 24 Ends: 1989 Oct 25 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 40
T640/1337/2 Economy (Girobank and giroleasing) Begins: 1989 Jan 25 Ends: 1989 Jul 10 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 105
T640/1337/1 Economy (Girobank and giroleasing) Begins: 1987 Nov 17 Ends: 1988 Dec 9 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 176
T640/1336 International (Africa: general papers) Begins: 1989 May 11 Ends: 1989 Oct 23 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 62
T640/1335/3 Public spending (Health, social services and National Insurance Contributions) Begins: 1989 Jul 10 Ends: 1989 Oct 18 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 122
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