Cabinet Office Records

Domestic Records Information 22

1. Digitisation of the Cabinet Papers

The Cabinet Office papers dated from 1915 to the late 1970s have been digitised by The National Archvies in a project funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). The papers are available to search and download for free at: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cabinetpapers

The series of Cabinet documents included in this project are: CAB 23, CAB 24, CAB 65, CAB 66, CAB 67, CAB 68, CAB 128, CAB 129, CAB 181 and CAB 195.

2. Published Guides

The Cabinet Office records include the conclusions and papers of the Cabinet and the War Cabinets and their Committees, together with the records of the Committee for Imperial Defence (CID), the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COS) and the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC).

The National Archives has published several handbooks about the papers of the Cabinet Office. The handbooks describe the records in some detail. The handbooks are available in many large libraries.

They are:

3. Cabinet Records Before 1916

Until the Cabinet Secretariat was formed in December 1916 no formal record of Cabinet meetings, such as minutes and conclusions, were kept. The only record of Cabinet decisions was contained in letters written by the Prime Minister to the Sovereign after each meeting.

These letters vary a great deal in length and detail and are now preserved in the Royal Archives at Windsor. Microfilms of the letters from 1837 to 1867 have been published by Harvester Press; the British Library at Boston Spa holds copies of these films (reference: Sub-set C, 61, shelfmark MFR 3006) as do some other academic institutions. Photocopies of the letters for 1868-1916 are in CAB 41 . Photocopies of Cabinet papers held in private and other collections for 1880-1916 are in CAB 37 . For detailed lists of these papers see PRO Handbooks 4 and 9.

Some eight hundred Cabinet papers that had been returned to the Cabinet Office by former Ministers or their executors are in CAB 1 , which to a great extent duplicates CAB 37 .

Few records of Cabinet committees survive before 1916. The records of the Committee of Imperial Defence (CID) are among those which do survive and they are discussed below. Other surviving committee papers can be found in CAB 1 and CAB 37 .

4. Cabinet Records During the First World War

Cabinet meetings continued to be recorded in Prime Minister's Letters (CAB 41 ) and papers circulated for discussion (CAB 37 ). It soon became clear that a better system was needed for conducting and recording the War Cabinet's business. In November 1914 the Cabinet established the War Council to advise on the general conduct of the war, but the Council met infrequently and was replaced in May 1915 by the Dardenelles Committee which was concerned, as the name suggests, mainly with the Gallipoli expedition. The Committee in turn was replaced in November 1915 by the War Committee with responsibility for the whole range of naval and military operations and war policy in general. Unlike pre-war Cabinet committees these committees were serviced by the permanent secretariat of the CID, which kept detailed minutes and organised the issuing of memoranda. The papers and minutes of these committees are in CAB 22 with photocopies chronologically arranged in CAB 42 . A more detailed account of the Cabinet at this time together with a list of the papers issued by the Cabinet and these committees can be found in PRO Handbook 9.

When Lloyd George became Prime Minister on 7 December 1916, the secretariat of the CID, under Sir Maurice Hankey, became the nucleus of a new Cabinet Office serving a War Cabinet of five members. The main series of papers circulated to the War Cabinet, classified as GT, are in CAB 24 . There is a detailed index at The National Archives. The minutes and conclusions of the War Cabinet were noted for the first time and are in CAB 23 . Photocopies are on open access at The National Archives.

The establishment of the Cabinet Office ensured that minutes and papers of Cabinet committees were kept systematically. The surviving papers of most of the committees appointed by the War Cabinet are in CAB 27 . The records of the Post War Priority and Demobilisation Committee, however, are in CAB 33 , the War Trade Advisory Committee in CAB 39 and the War Priorities Committee in CAB 40 .

5. Cabinet Records in the Inter-War Years

With the return of peace Lloyd George replaced the small War Cabinet with a traditional Cabinet of twenty members. At its first meeting on 4 November 1919 the new Cabinet decided to retain the methods of record keeping used by the War Cabinet.

The Cabinet conclusions of the inter-war years continue in CAB 23 and Cabinet Memoranda are in CAB 24 . There are photocopies of the Cabinet conclusions in CAB 23 on open access at the National Archives. The only Cabinet committee to become permanent was the Home Affairs Committee, established in July 1918 as a standing committee co-ordinating the work of civil departments but used increasingly as a forum for the examination of forthcoming legislation. Its records are in CAB 26 . Two other standing committees were established during the inter-war period to advise the Government on economic and scientific matters - the Committee on Civil Research, established in 1925, and the Economic Advisory Council which replaced it in 1930. The papers of these committees and their sub-committees are in CAB 58 . (The records of other Cabinet committees are in CAB 27 .) Further information about the Cabinet in the inter-war years can be found in PRO Handbook 17.

6. The War Cabinet, 1939-1945

From September 1939 to May 1945 the Cabinet was replaced by a smaller War Cabinet with a membership varying between five and ten and including both departmental and non-departmental ministers. There was no change in the way in which decisions were recorded and papers circulated.

Conclusions of the War Cabinet, in CAB 65 , and memoranda circulated to its members, in CAB 66 , are available on open access at The National Archives. Two other small series of memoranda WP(G) in CAB 67 and WP(R) in CAB 68 must be ordered in the usual way.

At the outbreak of the War, in 1939, a Minister for Co-ordination of Defence was appointed to advise on the overall conduct of the War. In May 1940 this role was replaced by a Defence Committee presided over by the new Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, who combined the office of Prime Minister with that of Minister of Defence, with undefined executive powers in order to control the military side of the war effort. The Committee was organised in two panels called Operations and Supply. The relevant papers are in CAB 69 and CAB 70 . The Chiefs of Staff Committee, which was also part of the War Cabinet, is discussed below. Churchill was assisted as Minister of Defence by a small secretariat whose papers are in CAB 120 and CAB 121 . The post lapsed when the Prime Minister left office in July 1945.

The principal committee covering home affairs was the Lord President's Committee which gradually achieved a pre-eminent position on the home front. Its papers are in CAB 71 . Other important domestic Cabinet committees were the Economic Policy Committee whose papers are in CAB 72 , the Food Policy Committee (CAB 74 ), the Home Policy Committee (CAB 75 ) and the Production Council (CAB 92 ). Committees on economic affairs are in CAB 72 , on reconstruction in CAB 87 , on civil defence in CAB 73 and on overseas matters in CAB 91 , and CAB 94 to CAB 96 . Records of other domestic committees are in CAB 77 to CAB 78 , CAB 87 , CAB 90 to CAB 91 , CAB 95 and CAB 98 .

Further details about the War Cabinet are to be found in PRO Handbooks 15 and 17.

7. Resident Ministers

The papers of Resident Ministers abroad appointed by the War Cabinet between 1941 and 1945 are in FO 660 ; papers of the Minister of State at Cairo are in FO 921 . Papers of the Minister resident in West Africa are in CO 554 .

8. Cabinet Records of the Post-War Period

On the defeat of Germany in May 1945 the War Cabinet was dissolved and a caretaker Cabinet was formed by Churchill. The conclusions and memoranda of this Cabinet are to be found in CAB 65 and CAB 66 respectively.

Under Prime Minister Clement Attlee (1945-1951), the functions of the Cabinet Office remained much as before. The conclusions of post-war Cabinets are in CAB 128 and the memoranda are in CAB 129 . Photocopies of both the conclusions and the memoranda are available on open access at the National Archives. The records of committees are in CAB 130 to CAB 132 and CAB 134 . The papers of the remodelled Defence and Oversea Policy Committee to 1963 can be found in CAB 148 .

9. Cabinet Minutes and Conclusions

Cabinet conclusions (called minutes until August 1919) are normally taken by the Secretary to the Cabinet or one of the Secretary's assistants. They are not verbatim accounts of meetings but consist of summaries of the discussion together with a note of the decisions reached.

References to Cabinet minutes and conclusions are made by using symbols or codes of the form CC 34(38)5, in which the letters refer to the series of conclusions and the figures to the details of the meeting, year, and place on the agenda. The code used here relates to the conclusion of the fifth item on the agenda of the 34th Cabinet meeting for 1938. This notation has remained almost unchanged from 1916, although occasionally there are variations. The code 34 (5) refers to the fifth set of conclusions for the year 1934. The department codes for series of conclusions are as follows:

Certain conclusions were regarded as being especially secret and were recorded in the Secretary's Standard File and became Confidential Annexes. Those for 1917-1939 are in CAB 23/13 , 9OB. Those from 1939 to 1948 are contained in separate volumes for each year as noted in the lists for CAB 65 and CAB 128 . Confidential annexes for 1949 to September 1951 are in CAB 128/21 . From October 1951 they are included with each volume of Cabinet conclusions. From this period the Confidential Annexes are also described in the catalogue as ‘most confidential’ records.

CAB 195, the Cabinet Secretaries´ notebooks, (1942 onwards), are the handwritten notes which the Cabinet Secretary makes when he attends Cabinet Meetings as the Senior Secretary. The notebooks provide more detailed accounts of the meetings than appear in the printed minutes. The CAB 195 series gives more of a flavour of the discussions at Cabinet and therefore of the relationship and views of individual ministers. These records are available on our website at DocumentsOnline.

10. Cabinet Papers or Memoranda

Cabinet memoranda are circulated to members of the Cabinet and other Ministers for information or as a basis for discussion. There are indexes to memoranda in the Open Reading Room at The National Archives together with the memoranda of the War Cabinet of 1939 to 1945 ( CAB 66 ) and the post-war Cabinet (CAB 129 ). The memoranda of the pre-war Cabinets (CAB 24 ) and the copies of Cabinet papers from 1880 to 1916 (CAB 37 ) have to be ordered. Cabinet papers from 1916 are denoted in the following way by symbols similar to those used for the conclusions. For instance WP(40)345 denotes the 345th paper laid before the War Cabinet in 1940. The two department codes prefixing the symbols denote different series of Cabinet Papers and are as follows:

11. Cabinet Committees

Most Cabinet committees are appointed by the Prime Minister. Their purpose has been to provide focus, examination or disposal of a particular problem. The choice of chairman or chairwoman of cabinet committees lies within the patronage of the Prime Minister and for important or key committees may be a senior member of the Cabinet. Members appointed to committees would have departmental interest in the problem under discussion, and may include government officials and outside members. While committees may be required to report back to the Cabinet it was within their capacity to resolve problems and make decisions for the Cabinet. Some committees may have had a short lifespan depending on how speedily a problem had been resolved. Many committees were of a more permanent nature and the most important of these have been described above. The symbols or codes used by the Cabinet Office to denote papers of different committees are similar to those used for conclusions and memoranda. Thus TAC (36) 4 is the code for the Trade and Agriculture Committee of 1936 and denotes the fourth meeting of the committee in 1936. A detailed list of all Cabinet committees between 1916 and 1945, together with a list of code letters, may be found in PRO Handbook 17. Copies of this list and an index to the committees formed between 1945 and 1951 are available at The National Archives.

12. The Committees of Imperial Defence

The Committee of Imperial Defence (CID), established in 1902, was an advisory body with no executive powers. With the assistance of numerous sub-committees it advised the Cabinet and government departments on both the general principles of defence policy and their detailed application. The Prime Minister was its Chairman and only permanent member. A permanent secretariat established in 1904 became the Cabinet Secretariat in 1916.

During the First World War the functions of the CID were transferred to other committees and departments. Its first post-war meeting was in June 1920, and subsequently the CID met regularly until September 1939 when its functions were assumed by the War Cabinet. It was not revived after the War.

Minutes of the CID and the Standing Defence Sub-Committee are in CAB 2 . Circulated papers of the CID are in CAB 3 to CAB 6 and those of the Standing Defence Sub-Committee in CAB 34 . Files of the CID before December 1916 are in CAB 17 , and inter-war files in CAB 21 . There are some miscellaneous records in CAB 18 .

Before 1914 the CID had four permanent sub committees: Colonial (later Oversea) Defence (whose papers are in CAB 7 to CAB 11 ), Home Ports (later Home) Defence (CAB 12 to CAB 13 ), Co-ordination of Departmental Action (CAB 15 ) and Air (CAB 14 ). After 1918 only the first three were revived and they were subsequently augmented by a number of standing and ad hoc committees whose papers are in CAB 16 , CAB 34 to CAB 36 , CAB 46 to CAB 57 and CAB 60 .

A list of papers of the CID until 1914 can be found in PRO Handbook 6 and there is a detailed history in PRO Handbook 17.

13. The Chiefs of Staff Committee

The Chiefs of Staff Committee (COS) was established in 1924 to review the defence situation, co-ordinate action between the three services and advise the CID. The Committee consisted of the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), the First Sea Lord, the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), and occasionally the Prime Minister together with the Secretary to the Cabinet. The pre-war papers of the committee can be found in CAB 53 .

During the War the committee was part of the War Cabinet and the Chiefs became collectively responsible for advising the War Cabinet on military matters. The minutes of the COS together with minutes of the Vice-Chiefs of Staff Committee are in CAB 79 and the papers in CAB 80 . From mid-1942 to the end of 1942 most of the minutes and papers were marked O (ie: operational and top secret) and given a more restricted circulation. These are also in CAB 79 and CAB 80 . Detailed indexes to CAB 79 and CAB 80 are on open access at The National Archives.

The COS appointed a number of sub-committees whose papers are in CAB 81 , but the principal subordinate bodies were the Joint Planning Committee and Joint Administrative Planning Staff whose papers are in CAB 84 , and the Joint Intelligence Committee. Details of the Joint Intelligence Committee are given below.

By agreement between Churchill and Roosevelt in January 1942, military co-operation between the British and the Americans was placed in the hands of the Combined Chiefs of Staff composed of the American Joint Chiefs of Staff and the British Chiefs of Staff. Papers of this Committee are in CAB 88 .

From 1945 a small military section of the Cabinet Secretariat remained to service the Defence Committee of the Cabinet (papers in CAB 131/1 ), but most of the work of the former military section of the War Cabinet including the COS was transferred to a new Ministry of Defence established in December 1946. The minutes and the papers of the Chiefs of Staff Committee for 1946 are in CAB 79 and CAB 80 . Minutes of the committee from 1947 are in DEFE 4 , memoranda in DEFE 5 and the reports of the Joint Planning Staff in DEFE 6 .

14. Joint Intelligence Committee

The papers of the Joint Intelligence Committee can be found among various series. Various Cabinet Office minutes and memoranda can be found in a number of series. The JIC minutes and memoranda between 1936 and 1974 can be found in CAB 56 . The papers of the JIC secretariat minutes JIC (SEC) between 1942 and 1952 can be found in CAB 176 . The memoranda related to the Ministry of Defence and the Joint Intelligence Sub-Committee later Committee 1947-1966 can be found in CAB 158 . The JIC A-series minutes for 1969-1970 can be found in CAB 185 and memoranda 1969-1970 can be found in CAB 186 ; and JIC B-series minutes, memoranda and miscellaneous papers 1968-1975 are in CAB 188 .

The War Cabinet, Ministry of Defence and Cabinet Office files related to the JIC from 1939 to 1963 are in CAB 163 . War Books are in CAB 177 . War Cabinet Committees and Sub-committees of the Chiefs of Staff Committee minutes and papers from 1939 to 1947 will be found in CAB 81 .

Papers related to the JIC administrative structure and functions, transmission of intelligence reports, and reorganisation of the Joint Intelligence Organisation including the transfer of the JIC from the Ministry of Defence to the Cabinet Office can be found in CAB 163 . There are Ministry of Defence and Cabinet Office reviews, summaries and surveys 1956-1963 in CAB 179 .

There are daily situation centre reports are in CAB 21 . Papers of the Cabinet War Room and Joint Intelligence Committee are in CAB 120 . The Special Secret Information Centre files 1939-1955 are in CAB 121 .

15. The Special Operations Executive

The Cabinet papers contain some material related to the organisation and activities of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Some activities of the SOE in various theatres of war, including operations in Poland, Greece and Yugoslavia, are referred to in CAB 119 , and South America and the Caribbean in CAB 122 , and the Middle East in CAB 21 . There are also papers in CAB 118 . Correspondence on the organisation of the SOE and recruitment of SOE agents can be found in CAB 127 , and on organisation and control in CAB 121 .

Among the records of the Cabinet Office Historical Section, papers related to Combined Headquarters, Special Operations Executive and Political Warfare Executive (PWE) can be found in CAB 103 .

16. The Historical Section

The Cabinet Office has compiled a series of official histories for publication, through HMSO.

The Committee of Imperial Defence (CID) established a Historical Branch in 1907 to write a military history of the South African War. After the First World War it undertook the compilation of series of military histories of that War. In 1939 the Branch became the Historical Section of the War Cabinet and subsequently of the Cabinet. The Historical Section produced histories of both military and civil aspects of the Second World War, sponsored by individual government departments.

Included among the official histories related to intelligence activities during World War Two is the Special Operations Executive.

A list of official histories is in PRO Handbook 15.

Registered files of the Historical Section are in CAB 103 and CAB 106 , unregistered files and correspondence in CAB 45 and CAB 140 (for the Second World War). The records of the Historical Section includes correspondence related to research between authors and individuals who had actively taken part in operations. Annotated copies of the published volumes of the military history of the Second World War are in CAB 101 and various papers on the civil series in CAB 102 .

17. The Papers of the Prime Minister's Private Office

As part of the reforms which led to the creation of the War Cabinet in December 1916 Lloyd George established a bureau of expert advisers drawn from outside the Civil Service. The bureau, usually known as the 'Garden Suburb', was abolished in October 1922. Its few remaining papers are in PREM 1 .

Later Prime Ministers have felt the need for personal advisers with a small Office to serve their needs and the papers of the Prime Minister's Private Office supplement Cabinet records and cover all aspects of policy making. Papers of the Private Office between 1916 and May 1940 are in PREM 1 . Papers from 1940 to 1945 concerning defence and operational subjects are in PREM 3 and those on civil and political matters mostly in PREM 4 . General correspondence and papers of the Office from 1945 to 1951 are in PREM 8 and from 1951 onwards in PREM 11 .

At Macmillan OnLine www.ampltd.co.uk/online/Macmillian-Cabinet-Papers/index.aspx, there is electronic access to the Prime Minister’s papers and to Cabinet Office conclusions and memoranda (CAB 128 and CAB 129 ) for the years of the Macmillan Administration 1957-1963. At Macmillan On-Line, the records of some key Cabinet Committees in series CAB 134 are also available, including matters related to defence and nuclear policy, and changes affecting Britain’s relationship with former dependant colonies. Digital copies of the 1971-1976 Cabinet Conclusions can be accessed through DocumentsOnline.

18. International Conferences

From 1916 the Cabinet Office has provided the secretariat for the United Kingdom at various international conferences. Records of Imperial Conferences from 1917 to 1939 are in CAB 32 . The records of earlier Imperial Conferences are in CAB 17 to CAB 18 . Records of most international conferences until 1939 are in CAB 29 , although the records of the Washington Disarmament Conference of 1921 and 1922 are in CAB 30 and the Genoa Economic Conference in CAB 31 . Records of various conferences on Ireland in 1921 and 1922 are in CAB 43 .

Details of international and Commonwealth conferences during the Second World War can be found in CAB 99 . The series includes meetings between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin and the Anglo-French Supreme War Council of 1939 and 1940. The records of international and Commonwealth conferences from 1945 are in CAB 133 .

From 1965, the Commonwealth Secretary General produced official records of meetings of Commonwealth Heads of Government. Papers related to the Commonwealth Secretary General can be found mainly among the records of the Foreign Office until 1966 and from 1967 the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

19. Registered Files of the Cabinet

The Registered Files of the Cabinet and War Cabinets beginning in 1916 and containing papers on many aspects of British policy both domestic and foreign are in CAB 21 . The records continue from 1966 in CAB 164 and CAB 165 . These series also contain papers about the machinery of the Cabinet Secretariat. There is also a supplementary series of registered files (CAB 104 ) that were originally closed for 50 or 75 years.

20. The Cabinet Economic Section and Central Statistical Office

A staff of academic economists and statisticians was recruited in 1939 as the Central Economic Information Office, and Churchill brought his own staff of statisticians to the Cabinet Office from the Admiralty in 1940. Churchill retained this staff throughout the War. Its records are among the Cherwell Papers at Nuffield College, (University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 1NF) though some of the briefs to Churchill are in the series PREM 3 , PREM 4 , and CAB 120 and among the Chartwell Trust Papers. The Central Economic Information Office split into two halves in 1941 and these were the Central Statistical Office and the Economic Section. Papers of the Central Statistical Office are in CAB 139 and CAB 141 . Papers of the Economic Section, which was transferred to the Treasury in 1953, are in T 230 .

Further Reading

(ri2129) Last updated: 19 December 2008 | © Crown Copyright 2004