CABINET PAPERS:

Complete classes from the CAB & PREM series in the Public Record Office

Series Three: CAB 128 & CAB 129 - Cabinet Conclusions and Cabinet Memoranda,

1945 and following

Part 7: The Heath Government - June 1970 - March 1974

CAB 128 - General Character

CAB 128 contains the minutes, or ‘Conclusions’, of the Cabinet Meetings taken down by the Secretary of the Cabinet; as such they provide an excellent record as to the main concerns and priorities of the government.

For every meeting held by the Cabinet there is a title page giving the time, place and date of the meeting, a list of who attended and a reference number.  The next page is usually an agenda listing the topics covered in the meeting, although this information is occasionally put on the title page if there are only one or two items to be covered.  The minutes themselves then follow, with each item discussed at the meeting being noted in a brief summary along with a record of any decisions reached.

Each meeting is assigned a unique reference number which can be found at the beginning of each title page.  The first two letters identify the papers as belonging to the Cabinet Conclusions series, “CM” prefixes minutes belonging to the Heath government.  The number in brackets refers to the specific year, and the following number indicates the meeting.  Thus CM (70) 27 would be the Minutes of the twenty-seventh Meeting of the Heath Cabinet held in 1970.

The Detailed Listing for CAB 128 provided in this guide gives the date and reference number for each meeting, as well as an indication of the number of items discussed and The National Archives/Public Record Office piece number.  The piece number refers to the bound volume in which the minutes are contained. The heading denotes the range of material held within that volume; ie: CAB 128/47 Cabinet Minutes, June-December 1970 CM (70) Series (Meetings 1-48). This is followed by a chronological list of the minutes themselves with their original Cabinet reference numbers, the number of items discussed, as well as the date of the meeting.

For example: CM (70) 27: 1-3 for 6 October 1970, refers to the Cabinet Minutes of the twenty-seventh meeting in 1970 at which three items were discussed.

The Detailed Listing provides the heading for each of the three items covered at this meeting, thus:

CM (70) 27 – 6 October 1970

1. Overseas Affairs: Kidnapping of United Kingdom Trade Commissioner at Montreal; Situation in the Middle East
2. Industrial Affairs: Local Authority Manual Workers’ Dispute
3. Public Expenditure

An annual index of the main subjects discussed in the Cabinet Conclusions is also included in each volume and can usually be found at the beginning of each year’s run of documents.

As well as the normal Conclusions, CAB 128 also contains a number of ‘Confidential Annexes’ and ‘Most Confidential Records’.  These minutes are regarded as being particularly sensitive and not suitable for general distribution and so were kept separate from the normal run of Cabinet Conclusions.  These are listed in the Detailed Listing under their appropriate piece numbers and include a title referring to their contents.

The following sample document provides the full text of the Cabinet Conclusions: CM (73) 43: the Minutes of the forty-third Cabinet Meeting in 1973, held on 2 October, to discuss Overseas Affairs (United States and Europe, Iceland, Gibraltar, the Visit of the Japanese Prime Minister and Austria), Northern Ireland (the Irish Case at Strasbourg and the Formation of an Executive), Monetary Matters, Industrial Affairs (the Motor Industry, the Electricity Industry, the Railways and the Coal Industry) as well as Mortgage and Mortgage Lending.

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