Everything about Red Box Government totally explained
A
ministerial box,
dispatch box or
document box or informally, a
"red box", is a red
briefcase used by the
British government to pass important documents from one
department (or person) to another. Government
ministers use these on a daily basis, and it's regarded as a mark of prestige and high office. Red is a colour used historically to signify British state ownership.
Traditionally red boxes are primarily made of wood and are also
lead-lined - this feature was originally so that they could be thrown off the side of a ship in the event of capture, but is now a convenient way of prohibiting examination by
X-rays. The boxes have the hinges at the top and the lock at the bottom in order to ensure they're locked before they're carried. The boxes are also bomb-proof, and designed to survive any catastrophe that may befall their owner. Their production costs between £375 and £750; the entire annual bill for 2006 came to over £50,000.
In 1998, a
Whitehall initiative began to replace document boxes with
computer-equipped and
networked boxes.
Perhaps the best known red box is the
Budget Box, which is held up for a photo-shoot outside of
11 Downing Street, when the
Chancellor of the Exchequer announces his annual
budget plans. The first Budget Box was made for
William Ewart Gladstone around
1860 and is lined in black and covered with scarlet
leather. That particular box had been used by every Chancellor since, with the exceptions of
James Callaghan and
Gordon Brown, who both had new ones commissioned in
1965 and
1997 respectively, as the original is beginning to wear away. The Budget Box of 1997 is made of yellow
pine with a
brass handle and lock, covered in scarlet leather and embossed with the
Royal Cypher of
E II R and the words
Chancellor of the Exchequer directly beneath it. However in 2008, Brown's successor as Chancellor
Alistair Darling reverted to using the original box.
Other dispatch boxes of note are the ones delivered to the
British Sovereign every day (except
Christmas Day and
Easter Sunday) by government departments, via the
Page of the Presence. These boxes contain
Cabinet and
Foreign and Commonwealth Office documents, most of which the
monarch must sign and give
Royal Assent to, before they can become law (an essential part of the role of a
constitutional monarch). However, unlike the boxes used by Departmental Ministers, the monarch's boxes are covered with blue leather. Dispatch boxes of the Government Whips, including the
Chief Whip are covered in black leather.
When Ministers leave office, they're traditionally permitted to retain one of the red (or black) boxes as a memento.
Further Information
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