Researchers of modern Maltese history will soon be able to sift through hundreds of Cabinet papers and memos dating from between 1962 and 1981, after the government decided to pass them on to the National Archives.

However, it appears that the only formal Cabinet papers to be made available are the ones pertaining to the Nationalist governments of George Borg Olivier between 1962 and 1971, as those of the two Mintoff administrations that followed were “not found”.

Instead, only ‘notes’ relating to Dom Mintoff’s Cabinet meetings from those years will be made public. Presenting the initiative yesterday, the head of the Civil Service and Cabinet Secretary Mario Cutajar said the government had decided to accede to a number of requests that had been made for the publication of Cabinet papers between 1962 and 1981.

These, he said, were an important tool for researchers of modern political history.

He added that similar requests made in the past were never upheld by previous administrations.

The Cabinet, normally made up of government ministers and headed by the Prime Minister, is considered to be the top decision-making body of the administration.

Under the administrations of former prime ministers Borg Olivier, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, Eddie Fenech Adami, Alfred Sant and Lawrence Gonzi, Cabinet meetings were held on a very regular basis. The same happens under the current administration.

This, however, was not the case under the Labour administration of Dom Mintoff, when these collegial meetings were few and far between.

The history of Malta’s Cabinet goes back to 1921 when Malta had the first self-government.

Malta’s government at the time was referred to as “the Ministry” and the Cabinet used to meet under the “Head of the Ministry”.

However, the first Maltese Constitution that officially refers to the role of the Cabinet was the one of 1961, known also as the “Blood Constitution”.

The first official meeting of the Maltese Cabinet was held on August 27, 1962.