The Cabinet Office records........comprise the most valuable single collection of modern (British) material for historical purposes that can be obtained from official sources (Report of the Committee on Departmental Records 1954 (Grigg Report), 147 (Cmd 9163)).
The records of the Cabinet Office are, in part, so valuable because of the importance of the bodies for which the Office acted as Secretariat. Foremost amongst these are the Cabinet and its committees. The latter are here organised into four sections: the Committee of Imperial Defence; Cabinet Committees, 1916-1939; Cabinet Committees, 1939 to 1945, and Cabinet Committees, 1945 onwards.
The records also include Cabinet Minutes and Papers and those of the Cabinet Secretary's Office.
The Cabinet Office has also serviced many Imperial, Commonwealth and International Conferences.
Amongst the Cabinet Office records, however, are also those of bodies for which it acquired responsibility, such as the Historical Section, the Central Statistical Office and the Central Policy Review Staff; collections of private and official papers of ex ministers and officials; Records of Temporary Commissions, Committees, and Inquiries; as well as the Office's own administrative records. Also records of the Central Intelligence Machinery; the Standing Security Commission; the Office of the Chief Scientific Adviser; and Scottish independence.
There are also the records of the Offices of Lord President of the Council, Minister of Reconstruction and Minister for Science: Records of the Offices of Non-Departmental Ministers attached to the War Cabinet and Cabinet Offices.
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