Red box (government)

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The original 'Budget Box' of circa 1860

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 is 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^{[citation needed]} - this feature was originally so that they could be thrown off the side of a ship in the event of capture^{[citation needed]}, but is now a convenient way of prohibiting examination by X-rays^{[citation needed]}. The boxes have the hinges at the top and the lock at the bottom in order to ensure they are locked before they are carried. The boxes are also bomb-proof, and designed to survive any catastrophe that may befall their owner.^[1] Their production costs between £375 and £750; the entire annual bill for 2006 came to over £50,000.^[2]

In 1998, a Whitehall initiative began to replace document boxes with computer-equipped and networked boxes.^[3]

Prop red boxes as seen in the classic BBC sitcom Yes Minister, 1980

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.^{[citation needed]} Dispatch boxes of the Government Whips, including the Chief Whip are covered in black leather.^[1]