Catalogue description Cabinet Secretary's Office

From the first meeting of the War Cabinet on the 9 December 1916, Maurice Hankey, the Secretary of the Committee of Imperial Defence, was in attendance and the Cabinet Office came into being.

Up to the incorporation of the Management and Personnel Office in 1981 the functions of the Cabinet Office remained substantially as established by Hankey. Increasingly from 1981, under both conservative and labour administrations, the Cabinet Office has additionally been given lead responsibility for pushing forward machinery of government and civil service management development and change.