The Cabinet Office provides support for the cabinet and the prime minister. It was created in 1916 as part of a general overhaul of government during the First World War (which also included the establishment of an entirely separate, but short-lived, private office for the prime minister).
Originally intended as a purely administrative body, it consisted of a cabinet secretary and a secretariat. Its main purpose was to record decisions made by the cabinet and its committees — and to make sure that they were carried out. However, it also quickly became a coordinating body, ensuring that government worked effectively, though with no executive or advisory functions. Indeed, in 1922 the prime minister of the day described it as ‘purely a recording machine’.
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