Catalogue description Records of the Central Management Services Division

The Central Management Services Division was created in 1988 under the Establishment Group of the Welsh Office. Previously, it had been known as the Accommodation Office and Management Services Division. The Division created in 1988 originally comprised two separate Divisions and a Branch.

Central and Management Services Division 1 managed: office services; departmental records; libraries; physical security; information technology and and telecommunications; staff inspection; management services; typing and secretarial services.

Central Management Services Division 2 comprised a Briefing Unit supplying: top management support; policy and procedural matters on public appointments and non-departmental public bodies; coordination of departmental briefing; policy and procedural matters relating to the Welsh Affairs Committee; Royal matters; ethnic minority and womens' issues; policy on purchasing; Budgeting Unit; manpower and staff complement and delegated budgeting policy and coordination.

An Emergencies Branch was also created in 1988 as a satellite body to these divisions, managing civil defence and peacetime emergencies.

In 1994 the two separate Divisions that had existed were brought together under the banner of Management Services Division - still under the Welsh Office Establishment Group. The Briefing Unit, Budgeting Unit and Emergencies Branch (all formerly belonging to Central Management Services Division 2) were hived off into Management Planning and Review.

By 2001, Management Services Division continued under the new Personnel, Management & Business Services Group and this remains the case to date.