The Conservative Central Office constitutes the main professional element of the Party. Its creation in 1870 marked the emergence of the modern Conservative Party, with a small core staff of professional, full-time employees, initially under the overall control of the Chief Whip but from 1911 a new Chairman of Party Organisation and Party Treasurer. The permanent head of Central Office for most of its existence was the Principal Agent, known from 1931 as the General Director. In 1966 the office of General Director was abolished, and the various departmental directors again became personally answerable to the Chairman and Deputy Chairman.

It is the function of Conservative Central Office 'to guide, inspire and co-ordinate the work of the party throughout the country, to advise and assist Constituency Associations and Area Councils and to provide such services as can best be organised centrally' (Maxwell Fyfe Report on Party Organisation, 1948). To that end it contains a large number of departments and sub-departments, each responsible for one or more aspects of party organisation. In 2004, Conservative Central Office was re-named Conservative Campaign Headquarters. No records of Conservative Central Office survive prior to 1911, and very little prior to the 1930s.

The organisation within Central Office has seen many alterations over the years, and departments and sections have appeared and disappeared in response to changing organisational emphases. Similarly the administrative system of records keeping has undergone a gradual change, as the central filing registry of the inter- and post-war years gave way to a departmentally orientated method of keeping files. This is the fourth of five series of registry files generated by Central Office which are held in the CPA and contains special subject files on a range of issues.