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 1101 - 1150 of 3727

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/1101 Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with Stanley Thorne MP about job losses at Preston factory of Rockwell Graphic Systems Ltd) Begins: 1983 Apr 20 Ends: 1983 May 13 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 15
PREM19/1102 Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with Dr Henry Kaufman of Salomon Brothers Inc: economic situation in USA; international economic situation) Begins: 1983 Mar 4 Ends: 1983 Mar 4 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 4
PREM19/1103 Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with Alexander Solzhenitsyn: record of meeting) Begins: 1983 May 6 Ends: 1983 May 12 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 15
PREM19/1104 Prime Minister (Future of Timex operation in Dundee: Prime Minister's meetings with Gordon Wilson MP and Ernie Ross MP) Begins: 1983 Jan 24 Ends: 1983 May 19 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 124
PREM19/1105 Prime Minister (Arab League Delegation visit to London; inclusion of representative of Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO)) (Part 1) Begins: 1980 Aug 4 Ends: 1983 Feb 28 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 309
PREM19/1106 Prime Minister (Arab League Delegation visit to London; inclusion of representative of Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO); meeting with Prime Minister) (Part 2) Begins: 1983 Mar 2 Ends: 1983 Mar 27 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 176
PREM19/1107 Prime Minister (Briefing for incoming Prime Minister from Cabinet Office, Prime Minister's Office and Civil Service Department, May 1979; post-election briefing, June 1983) Begins: 1979 Apr 6 Ends: 1983 Jun 8 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 162
PREM19/1108 Prime Minister (Meeting with Hector Monro, Minister for Sport at Department of the Environment: soccer hooliganism; Gleneagles Agreement and the forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM)) Begins: 1981 May 1 Ends: 1983 Jul 12 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 12
PREM19/1109 Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meetings with Dr Edmund Marshall MP: closure of GEC Small Machines Ltd factory at Thorne and Thornhill's chicken processing factory at Stainforth) Begins: 1981 May 12 Ends: 1983 Feb 4 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 46
PREM19/1110 Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meetings with local MPs about closures of Wiggins Teape paper machines in Dartford and Thames Board mill at Warrington) Begins: 1983 Jan 25 Ends: 1983 Mar 7 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Restricted Pages: 49
PREM19/1111 Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meetings with Dr David Clark MP about factory closures and unemployment in his South Shields constituency) Begins: 1981 Jul 14 Ends: 1983 Jan 24 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 189
PREM19/1112 Prime Minister (Prime Minister's visit to Falklands, Jan 1983) (Part 1) Begins: 1982 Aug 10 Ends: 1983 Jan 12 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Any docs withheld? 3 Classification: Top Secret Pages: 197
PREM19/1113 Prime Minister (Prime Minister's visit to Falklands, Jan 1983) (Part 2) Begins: 1983 Jan 10 Ends: 1983 Mar 29 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Any docs withheld? 5 Classification: Secret Pages: 153
PREM19/1114 Regional policy (Urban Development Corporations; regeneration of Liverpool and London Docklands; Medway Towns; inner city policy and problems) (Part 3) Begins: 1981 Nov 19 Ends: 1983 Aug 9 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 248
PREM19/1115 Regional policy (Review of regional policy, creation of Enterprise Zones) (Part 4) Begins: 1981 Jun 30 Ends: 1983 Jan 27 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 215
PREM19/1116 Regional policy (Review of regional policy; creation of Enterprise Zones) (Part 5) Begins: 1983 Feb 11 Ends: 1983 Oct 31 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 206
PREM19/1117 Romania (Visit to UK by Manea Manescu, Vice President of the Romanian State Council and member of the Political Executive Committee of the Romanian Communist Party) Begins: 1983 Jun 22 Ends: 1983 Sep 28 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 33
PREM19/1118 Royal family (Public memorial to Lord Mountbatten; appeal for statue; selection of sculptor; arrangements for unveiling ceremony) (Part 2) Begins: 1981 Jun 3 Ends: 1983 Sep 29 Date of release: 2014 Feb 14 Classification: Confidential Pages: 265
PREM19/1119 Royal family (Public memorial to Lord Mountbatten: statue unveiling ceremony, 2 November 1983) (Part 3) Begins: 1983 Oct 3 Ends: 1983 Nov 8 Date of release: 2014 Feb 14 Any docs withheld? 3 Classification: Confidential Pages: 137
PREM19/1120 Royal family (Queen Mother's visits to Northern Ireland, April 1982 and June 1983) Begins: 1982 Apr 20 Ends: 1983 Jun 17 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 8
PREM19/1121 Royal family (Visits to Northern Ireland by the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester) Begins: 1981 Jun 12 Ends: 1983 Nov 21 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 9
PREM19/1122 Royal family (Visit to Zimbabwe by Duke of Edinburgh, May 1983) Begins: 1983 Jan 26 Ends: 1983 Jan 31 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 5
PREM19/1123 Royal family (Royal visits by Queen and Duke of Edinburgh to Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Mexico, USA, and Canada [also Belize] February-March 1983) Begins: 1982 Jun 4 Ends: 1983 Jan 31 Date of release: 2014 Feb 14 Any docs withheld? 5 Classification: Secret Pages: 46
PREM19/1124 Royal family (Royal visits to Kenya, India, and Bangladesh) Begins: 1983 Feb 23 Ends: 1983 Jul 8 Date of release: 2013 Nov 20 Classification: Confidential Pages: 14
PREM19/1125 Royal family (Prince of Wales' article, 'Help for Self-Help', for publication in The Economist) Begins: 1983 Mar 11 Ends: 1983 Mar 18 Date of release: Closed until 2024-01-01 Classification: Unknown
PREM19/1126 Saudi Arabia (Saudi/UK relations; internal situation) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 Nov 9 Ends: 1983 Dec 23 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Any docs withheld? 7 Classification: Secret Pages: 342
PREM19/1127 Security (Intelligence organisation, priorities of intelligence agencies; appointment of Chairman Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), membership of JIC) Begins: 1982 Dec 20 Ends: 1983 Mar 14 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 46
PREM19/1128 Security (Possibility of secure telephone link between Washington, London, Paris and Bonn) Begins: 1979 Oct 29 Ends: 1983 Oct 14 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 28
PREM19/1129 Security (Publication of book containing accounts of National Security Agency) Begins: 1982 Mar 14 Ends: 1983 May 5 Date of release: Retained Sec 3.4 Classification: Unknown
PREM19/1130 Security (Leak from Property Services Agency (PSA); activities of Trade Union representatives in the PSA) Begins: 1982 Apr 28 Ends: 1983 Mar 9 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 23
PREM19/1131 Security (Evacuation from Iran) Begins: 1982 Jul 1 Ends: 1983 Mar 1 Date of release: Retained Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/1132 Security (Workers Revolutionary Party; youth training centres) Begins: 1981 Mar 3 Ends: 1983 Mar 7 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 32
PREM19/1133 Security (Possible steps to overcome the change of culture towards leaks of government documents) Begins: 1983 Jun 16 Ends: 1983 Jun 18 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 5
PREM19/1134 Security (Leak of government documents during the election campaign; investigation) Begins: 1983 May 12 Ends: 1983 Nov 18 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 25
PREM19/1135 Security (Irish Republican Socialist Party) Begins: 1983 Oct 13 Ends: 1983 Nov 7 Date of release: Retained Sec 3.4 Classification: Unknown
PREM19/1136 Security (Case of Geoffrey Prime, former member of Government Communications Headquarters) Begins: 1982 Jun 3 Ends: 1983 Jun 30 Date of release: Retained Sec 3.4 Classification: Unknown
PREM19/1137 Security (Seizure of Iranian Embassy in South Kensington and the taking of hostages, April-May 1980) Begins: 1980 Apr 30 Ends: 1983 Feb 24 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 70
PREM19/1138 Social services (Treatment of redundancy payments as income for purposes of supplementary benefit) Begins: 1983 Sep 30 Ends: 1983 Nov 7 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 9
PREM19/1139 South Africa (Prime Minister's talk with Tiny Rowland, Chief Executive of Lonrho, about Namibia and Angola) Begins: 1982 Jan 29 Ends: 1982 Feb 25 Date of release: Retained Sec 3.4 Classification: Unknown
PREM19/1140 Soviet Union (Representations from Commander Anthony Courtney, former Conservative MP, about Soviet espionage activity in UK) Begins: 1980 Jan 8 Ends: 1982 Dec 14 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 30
PREM19/1141 Sport (Invitation to Princess Anne to become President of British Olympic Association) Begins: 1983 Mar 4 Ends: 1983 Apr 12 Date of release: 2024 Jan 1 Classification: Unknown
PREM19/1142 Statistics (International competitiveness and productivity: production statistics and measurement of quality improvements) Begins: 1983 Jan 28 Ends: 1983 Feb 25 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 15
PREM19/1143 Statistics (Introduction of new Tax and Price Index (TPI) to be published alongside Retail Price Index (RPI)) Begins: 1979 Jun 21 Ends: 1983 Aug 12 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 174
PREM19/1144 Sudan (Visits to UK by President Gaafar Nimeiri: records of meetings with Prime Minister) Begins: 1980 Jul 14 Ends: 1983 Dec 9 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 66
PREM19/1145 Trade (Intellectual property rights and innovation) Begins: 1982 Jul 19 Ends: 1983 Dec 22 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 228
PREM19/1146 Transport (Railway policy) (Part 6) Begins: 1982 Oct 7 Ends: 1983 Apr 25 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 184
PREM19/1147 Transport (Railway policy) Part 7 Begins: 1983 May 4 Ends: 1983 Oct 26 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 110
PREM19/1148 United Nations (Second Special Session on Disarmament; Prime Minister's visit to New York and Washington, June 1982) (Part 1) Begins: 1982 Feb 16 Ends: 1983 Oct 19 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 282
PREM19/1149 USA (Visit to UK by Edwin Meese, Counsellor to President Reagan: meeting with Prime Minister, May 1983) Begins: 1983 Apr 18 Ends: 1983 May 19 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 56
PREM19/1150 USA (Visits by Senator Jesse Helms and John Carbaugh; discussion of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe sanctions and US political matters) Begins: 1979 Jun 7 Ends: 1983 Jul 23 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 97
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