Red boxes, or sometimes ministerial boxes, are a type of despatch box produced by Barrow Hepburn & Gale or Wickwar & Co and are used by ministers in the British government and the British monarch to carry government documents. Similar in appearance to a briefcase, they are primarily used to hold and transport official ministerial papers. Red boxes are one modern form of despatch boxes, which have been in government use for centuries. Despatch boxes of a very different design remain in use in the chamber of the lower house of the British and Australian parliaments. Those boxes hold religious books for swearing-in new members of the chamber, but are also used as lecterns by front bench members.
A pair of despatch boxes
Budget box of William Gladstone, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1852 and 1882
George Osborne, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, holding the budget box to announce the 2014 budget
The Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia's red box
A despatch box is one of several types of boxes used in government business. Despatch boxes primarily include both those sometimes known as red boxes or ministerial boxes, which are used by the Sovereign and his ministers in the British government to securely transport sensitive documents, and boxes used in the lower houses of the parliaments of the United Kingdom and Australia. The term was used as early as the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, referring to a box used to carry an important message for the Queen.
The box on the government side.
Image: Australian House of Representatives centre desk, Hansard and dispatch boxes Parliament of Australia