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New releases

What has been digitised?

Core records of the British Cabinet from 1915 to 1982 have been digitised, and their full text is searchable online from these web pages. These include:

• Conclusions of cabinet meetings - the formal records of the discussions and decisions of cabinet
• Cabinet memoranda - the reports and papers given to cabinet ministers prior to cabinet meetings, giving background and forming the basis on which decisions were made
• Cabinet Secretary's notebooks - handwritten notebooks of the Cabinet Secretary, forming the first draft of the formal conclusions. They can give a much fuller flavour of cabinet discussions and differences between ministers. These notebooks have only survived from 1942 onwards and are gradually being released by the Cabinet Office following sensitivity checks and transcription.
• The Cabinet Office precedent books - short volumes describing Cabinet procedures and the Cabinet Office, providing context for the rest of the collection
• The National Archives Catalogue references for the series of files that have been digitised as a part of this project are ;CAB 23, CAB 24, CAB 65, CAB 66, CAB 67, CAB 68, CAB 128, CAB 129, CAB 181, CAB 195

What have not been digitised are other records of the Cabinet Office, including those of the various Cabinet Committees and those bodies associated with the Cabinet such as the Chiefs of Staff Committee. Prior to 1916 meetings of cabinets were not formally minuted and do not exist! The best way to discover what was discussed is to investigate the diaries, letters and memoirs of cabinet ministers at the time, or look at the Prime Minister's regular letters to the Sovereign, which included summaries of matters discussed at Cabinet.

If you believe that any cabinet conclusions or minutes from the period are missing from the site please contact us.

What is coming up?

Further Cabinet Secretary's notebooks will be digitised as they become available where possible. These are currently open and searchable up to March 1964.

Cabinet records are regularly released to the public throughout the year, usually 30 years after they have been created; in adherence with the 30-year rule. The main conclusions and memoranda of Cabinet are generally released at New Year. Since this site first launched the conclusions and memoranda for cabinet meetings of 1978 to 1982 have been made available and searchable online.

Files from 1982 will be digitised and made available alongside the previous records on these web pages, in early 2013.

Some of the files on this site contain redactions under the Public Recods Act. Where material becomes open to public view as a result of a Freedom of Information request the papers on this site will be updated. For example, in the first six months of 2010 we released 16 complete minutes or memoranda and nine extracts that had never been open to the public before. These releases are all reflected in the files currently available through the site.

Other Cabinet Papers resources

Tim Phillips maintains the excellent Cabinet Room blog which offers a range of historical and contemporary insights into the papers.