Archive

MT's official files as Prime Minister, 1979-90

MT's official files as PM can be read on this site as they are released, in full and free to all - the confidential files originally stored at No.10, the core record of her premiership.

The files have been copied at the British National Archives (TNA) at Kew in London and can be downloaded precisely as they appear in the reading room.

We are doing something more to help people make sense of this mass of information. The files are subject-based, logically enough, but that system makes it difficult to reconstruct the flow of paper across the Prime Minister’s desk at any point in time, depriving us of a sense of context, of the political cross-winds, some of them overwhelming.

To combat this effect we are uploading a large selection of the most important documents from these files – thousands in total - to our powerful site database. You can search and sort by date, subject and other parameters, getting as close as anyone can now get to reconstructing the Prime Minister’s daily "Red Boxes", the rich diet of foreign and domestic policy papers submitted to her by the No.10 Private Office.

List and links to the PM’s files

Below are links to the downloadable files in numerical order. The subject terms are those used in the original filing system.

An average file has around 200 pages.

You can read here an account of how filing worked at No.10, and the system for archiving MT’s Prime Ministerial papers, both of which had their quirks.

Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Private Office files, 1979-1989

1979-89: Chancellor’s Private Office files [links to hundreds of digitised files from the Chancellorships of Sir Geoffrey Howe and Nigel Lawson]

Engagement Diaries

An alternative way through the material is to read MT’s engagement diaries, jumping day to day.

The engagement diaries link directly to relevant documents in the site database, so this is a good way to recover the perspective from the Red Box.

Showing items 51 - 75 of 3727

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/1621 Security (Publication of 'British Intelligence and Covert Action' by Jonathan Bloch and Patrick Fitzgerald: security issues; Bloch's UK refugee residency status; protection of intelligence identities) Begins: 1983 Mar 9 Ends: 1985 Oct 28 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30
PREM19/1622 Security (Judgement by European Court of Human Rights on Malone case: proposed legislation on interception of communications) Begins: 1980 Sep 29 Ends: 1984 Jul 23 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30
PREM19/1624 Security (Allegations made to Kenneth Warren MP by John Kane about security standards at Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) establishments) Begins: 1979 Jun 14 Ends: 1984 Mar 26 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30
PREM19/1625 Security (Policy on interception: legislation) (Part 4) Begins: 1975 Oct 31 Ends: 1985 Jan 31 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30
PREM19/1629 Security (Possible penetration of Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Confidential communications) Begins: 1982 Mar 4 Ends: 1985 Dec 6 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30
PREM19/1631 Security (Security vetting: guidelines for Private Office posts) Begins: 1983 Jun 23 Ends: 1985 Jan 21 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30
PREM19/1676 Belize (Dispute with Guatemala) (Part 2) Begins: 1982 May 5 Ends: 1983 Feb 28 Date of release: 2024 Jan 1
PREM19/1682 China (Sino-British relations) (Part 3) Begins: 1985 Jun 1 Ends: 1986 Jun 29 Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/1703 Economic policy (Policy towards privatisation: disposal of public sector assets; contracting out of public sector functions; flotation of Royal Ordnance PLC; Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU) picketing at DHSS Huyton Local Office over privatised cleaning contract) (Part 13) Begins: 1985 Dec 2 Ends: 1986 Jun 27 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30
PREM19/1704 Economic policy (Policy towards privatisation: disposal of public sector assets; contracting out of public sector functions; flotation of Royal Ordnance PLC; Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU) picketing at DHSS Huyton Local Office over privatised cleaning contract) (Part 14) Begins: 1986 Jul 9 Ends: 1986 Oct 29 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30
PREM19/1738 Energy (Energy policy: nuclear power policy; proposed fast reactor plant at Dounreay; Sizewell Inquiry; fast reactor policy; structure of nuclear industry; international co-operation on fusion; safety in civil nuclear installations and nuclear electricity policy after Chernobyl) (Part 9) Begins: 1984 Dec 6 Ends: 1986 May 31 Date of release: Retained under Section 3.4
PREM19/1766 Gibraltar (Policy towards Gibraltar: discussions with Spanish under Lisbon and Brussels Agreements) (Part 5) Begins: 1984 Apr 6 Ends: 1986 Oct 24 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30
PREM19/1797 Hong Kong (Prime Minister's meetings with Sir Yue-Kong Pao, shipping magnate) (Part 2) Begins: 1982 Feb 8 Ends: 1986 Oct 29 Date of release: 2019 Jul 18
PREM19/1815 Ireland (Situation in Northern Ireland) (Part 21) Begins: 1986 Jul 2 Ends: 1986 Oct 31 Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/1980 Sri Lanka (Visits to UK by Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa (July 1979 - May 1986) and President Jayewardine (June 1984)) (Part 1. Note: With photograph) Begins: 1979 May 5 Ends: 1986 May 23 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Any docs withheld? 1
PREM19/1989 Transport (Railway policy: British Rail pay; industrial action by NUR and ASLEF; possible line closures; British Rail finances) (Part 8) Begins: 1984 Jan 20 Ends: 1986 Jul 31 Date of release: 2015 Dec 30
PREM19/1991 Transport (Channel Fixed Link (Channel Tunnel); Euroroute) (Part 4) Begins: 1985 Jan 2 Ends: 1986 Jan 31 Date of release: 2015 Dec 30
PREM19/1994 Uganda (Internal situation) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 Apr 17 Ends: 1986 Jan 31 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Any docs withheld? 1
PREM19/1996 United Nations (United Nations financial crisis) Begins: 1986 Mar 7 Ends: 1986 Apr 28 Date of release: 2015 Dec 30
PREM19/2010 Aerospace (European Airbus) (Part 2) Begins: 1986 Mar 18 Ends: 1987 Nov 30 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21
PREM19/2011 Aerospace (Space policy) (Part 2) Begins: 1986 Feb 4 Ends: 1987 May 31 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21
PREM19/2012 Aerospace (Space policy) (Part 3) Begins: 1987 Jul 14 Ends: 1988 Nov 22 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21
PREM19/2014 Agriculture (Agricultural expenditure) (Part 2) Begins: 1986 Nov 6 Ends: 1987 Nov 11 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21
PREM19/2015 Angola (Internal situation: UK/Angola relations) (Part 2) Begins: 1984 Apr 3 Ends: 1988 Aug 23 Date of release: Reconsideration in 2027 Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2022 Bermuda (UK/Bermuda relations; meetings with John Swan, Premier of Bermuda) (Part 1) Begins: 1982 May 21 Ends: 1987 Jun 26 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21
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