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 751 - 800 of 1282

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
T640/755 Budget (The independent television (ITV) levy for contract extension period) Begins: 1988 Jan 29 Ends: 1988 Dec 21 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 164
T640/756 Economy (Community radio policy) Begins: 1987 Dec 9 Ends: 1988 Nov 11 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 79
T640/757 Economy (Radio station broadcasting of records: terms, needletime and fees) Begins: 1988 Jan 6 Ends: 1988 Nov 28 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 69
T640/758 Economy (The television broadcasting industry) Begins: 1987 Dec 8 Ends: 1988 Jul 27 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 151
T640/759 Economy (The television broadcasting industry) Begins: 1988 Aug 19 Ends: 1988 Oct 19 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 78
T640/760 Economy (British satellite broadcasting and terrestrial television) Begins: 1988 Mar 24 Ends: 1988 Oct 19 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 84
T640/761 Economy (Report by the Electronic Communications Steering Group on the future communications infrastructure in the UK) Begins: 1988 Nov 28 Ends: 1988 Dec 21 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 75
T640/762 Economy (Chancellor of the Exchequer's papers on employment policy and labour market statistics) Begins: 1987 Jan 15 Ends: 1988 Jan 6 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Personal & Confidential Pages: 249
T640/763 Economy (Chancellor of the Exchequer's papers on employment policy and labour market statistics) Begins: 1988 Jan 8 Ends: 1988 Feb 16 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Personal & Confidential Pages: 216
T640/764 Economy (Chancellor of the Exchequer's papers on employment policy and labour market statistics) Begins: 1988 Feb 19 Ends: 1988 Mar 29 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Personal & Confidential Pages: 161
T640/765 Economy (Chancellor of the Exchequer's papers on employment policy and labour market statistics) Begins: 1988 Mar 31 Ends: 1988 May 6 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 184
T640/766 Economy (Chancellor of the Exchequer's papers on employment policy and labour market statistics) Begins: 1988 May 10 Ends: 1988 Jul 13 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Personal & Secret Pages: 185
T640/767 Economy (Chancellor of the Exchequer's papers on employment policy and labour market statistics) Begins: 1988 Jul 13 Ends: 1988 Sep 4 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 221
T640/768 Economy (Chancellor of the Exchequer's papers on employment policy and labour market statistics) Begins: 1988 Sep 13 Ends: 1988 Nov 9 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Personal & Secret Pages: 174
T640/769 Economy (Chancellor of the Exchequer's papers on employment policy and labour market statistics) Begins: 1988 Nov 10 Ends: 1988 Nov 28 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Personal & Secret Pages: 247
T640/770 Civil Servive (Chancellor of the Exchequer's papers on Next Steps agencies) Begins: 1987 Oct 20 Ends: 1988 Jan 4 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 193
T640/771 Civil Servive (Chancellor of the Exchequer's papers on Next Steps agencies) Begins: 1988 Jan 11 Ends: 1988 May 18 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 174
T640/772 Civil Servive (Chancellor of the Exchequer's papers on Next Steps agencies) Begins: 1988 May 20 Ends: 1988 Jul 26 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 118
T640/773 Civil Servive (Chancellor of the Exchequer's papers on Next Steps agencies: report on 'Improving Management in Government - the Next Steps') Begins: 1987 Mar 1 Ends: 1988 Jul 1 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 145
T640/774 Economy (Profit-related pay) Begins: 1987 Sep 22 Ends: 1988 Feb 19 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 140
T640/775 Economy (Profit-related pay) Begins: 1988 Mar 7 Ends: 1988 Jul 22 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 166
T640/776 Public spending (Chancellor of the Exchequer's papers on health and social security services) Begins: 1987 Feb 24 Ends: 1988 Jun 13 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Personal & Secret Pages: 155
T640/778 Public spending (Chancellor of the Exchequer's papers on health and social security services) Begins: 1988 Oct 13 Ends: 1988 Oct 31 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 170
T640/779 Public spending (Chancellor of the Exchequer's papers on health and social security services) Begins: 1988 Nov 1 Ends: 1988 Nov 10 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 204
T640/780 Public spending (Chancellor of the Exchequer's papers on health and social security services) Begins: 1988 Nov 10 Ends: 1988 Nov 18 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Personal & Secret Pages: 153
T640/781 Public spending (Chancellor of the Exchequer's papers on health and social security services) Begins: 1988 Nov 18 Ends: 1988 Nov 28 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Personal & Secret Pages: 204
T640/782 Public spending (Chancellor of the Exchequer's papers on health and social security services) Begins: 1988 Nov 28 Ends: 1988 Dec 7 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 179
T640/783 Public spending (Chancellor of the Exchequer's papers on health and social security services) Begins: 1988 Dec 7 Ends: 1988 Dec 14 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 196
T640/784 Public spending (Review of student support) Begins: 1987 Nov 24 Ends: 1988 Feb 4 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 155
T640/785 Public spending (Review of student support) Begins: 1988 Feb 5 Ends: 1988 Jul 15 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 164
T640/786 Public spending (Review of student support) Begins: 1988 Jul 18 Ends: 1988 Dec 15 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 138
T640/787 Education (The setting up of the National Curriculum Council) Begins: 1988 May 18 Ends: 1988 Aug 11 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 33
T640/788 Political (Chancellor of the Exchequer's speech on higher education at the London School of Economics and Political Science, 20 September 1988) Begins: 1988 Sep 20 Ends: 1988 Oct 17 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Personal & Confidential Pages: 123
T640/789 Public spending (Replacing the Additional Personal Allowance and tax relief on certain maintenance payments by increased benefits) Begins: 1988 Jan 4 Ends: 1988 Jan 14 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 26
T640/790 Public spending (Proposals for university funding) Begins: 1988 Sep 23 Ends: 1988 Oct 17 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 28
T640/791 Education (Self-governing schools in Scotland) Begins: 1988 Nov 29 Ends: 1988 Dec 5 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 33
T640/795 Public spending (Chancellor of the Exchequer's papers on the Public Expenditure White Paper 1988) Begins: 1987 Nov 26 Ends: 1988 Jul 1 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 200
T640/796 Public spending (Chancellor of the Exchequer's papers on public expenditure programmes and the Public Sector Borrowing Requirement (PSBR)) Begins: 1987 May 15 Ends: 1988 Jan 18 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Personal & Confidential Pages: 200
T640/797 Public spending (Chancellor of the Exchequer's papers on public expenditure programmes and the Public Sector Borrowing Requirement (PSBR)) Begins: 1988 Jan 18 Ends: 1988 Feb 24 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 200
T640/798 Public spending (Chancellor of the Exchequer's papers on public expenditure programmes and the Public Sector Borrowing Requirement (PSBR)) Begins: 1988 Feb 25 Ends: 1988 Jul 6 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 244
T640/800 Europe (Chancellor of the Exchequer's papers on the dates for summer time; includes papers on the proposal of the European Community to harmonise the dates for summer time) Begins: 1988 Mar 3 Ends: 1988 Nov 18 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 111
T640/801 Housing (Chancellor of the Exchequer's papers on the housing market) Begins: 1987 Nov 30 Ends: 1988 Apr 29 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Personal & Confidential Pages: 162
T640/802 Housing (Chancellor of the Exchequer's papers on the housing market) Begins: 1988 May 3 Ends: 1988 Jul 8 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Secret Pages: 146
T640/803 Housing (Chancellor of the Exchequer's papers on the housing market: flexi-ownership) Begins: 1988 Apr 1 Ends: 1988 Apr 1 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 18
T640/804 Political (Opposition parties' policies and statements in the run up to the 1987 General Election) Begins: 1987 Jul 9 Ends: 1988 Apr 18 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 113
T640/805 Political (Opposition parties' policies and statements in the run up to the 1987 General Election) Begins: 1988 May 3 Ends: 1988 Oct 11 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Restricted Pages: 183
T640/806 International (The South African economy and their relationship with the international financial community) Begins: 1987 Aug 5 Ends: 1988 Oct 17 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 75
T640/807 Public spending (Civil Service pay dispute 1987) Begins: 1987 May 29 Ends: 1988 Feb 16 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 113
T640/808 Civil service (Status and duties of Civil Servants) Begins: 1987 Sep 27 Ends: 1988 Jan 11 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Confidential Pages: 43
T640/809 Housing (Village housing and new villages) Begins: 1988 Jan 18 Ends: 1988 Feb 15 Date of release: 2014 Classification: Personal & Confidential Pages: 23
Per page: