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 276 - 300 of 3727

Per page:

File name	File title	Begins	Ends	Release date	Classification
PREM19/2756	Legal Procedure (Review of the legal profession: legal reforms) (Part 3)	Begins: 1989 Apr 4	Ends: 1989 Nov 28	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2758	Legal Procedure (The jury system in Britain)	Begins: 1988 Oct 27	Ends: 1989 Jan 3	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2759	Legal Procedure (The legal position of the need for the Prime Minister to give evidence in the trial of Ron Brown MP)	Begins: 1982 Sep 1	Ends: 1989 Apr 11	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2769	Luxembourg (Prime Minister's visits to Luxembourg, October 1979 and April 1989: policy)	Begins: 1979 Sep 20	Ends: 1989 Apr 18	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2780	National Health (Alcohol policy: reports on alcohol misuse)	Begins: 1981 Jun 5	Ends: 1989 Oct 31	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2781	National Health (John Corrie MP's Bill on Abortion (1979): David Alton's Abortion Bill (1988); abortion policy)	Begins: 1979 Jun 5	Ends: 1989 Feb 17	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2782	National Health (Outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in Staffordshire: Stafford Hospital Inquiry)	Begins: 1988 May 20	Ends: 1989 Jul 18	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2783	Nationalised Industries (Gas and electricity pricing policy: industrial energy policy; privatisation of the electricity supply industry) (Part 16)	Begins: 1989 Jan 5	Ends: 1989 Aug 31	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2785	Nationalised Industries (Shipbuilding policy) (Part 15)	Begins: 1988 Oct 4	Ends: 1989 Jul 17	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2787	NATO (NATO's 30th, 35th and 40th anniversaries)	Begins: 1979 May 10	Ends: 1989 Mar 23	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2790	New Zealand (Visits to the UK of New Zealand Leaders of the Opposition: David Lange and Jim Bolger)	Begins: 1984 Jan 9	Ends: 1989 Aug 7	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2794	Parliament (Legislative programme) (Part 18)	Begins: 1988 Sep 30	Ends: 1989 Sep 29	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2796	Parliament (Boundary Commission reviews of Parliamentary constituencies in Wales and the UK) (Part 2)	Begins: 1986 Jul 11	Ends: 1989 Jan 18	Date of release: Retained	Classification: Temporarily retained by Department
PREM19/2798	Poland (UK/Polish relations: internal situation; economic assistance) (Part 10)	Begins: 1988 Feb 8	Ends: 1989 Aug 31	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2800	Police (Police pay) (Part 2)	Begins: 1985 Mar 1	Ends: 1989 Jul 26	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2801	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meetings with the Union of Democratic Mineworkers (UDM))	Begins: 1986 Sep 5	Ends: 1990 Jan 9	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2802	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's term of office: Mrs Thatcher's 10th anniversary as Prime Minister)	Begins: 1987 Sep 9	Ends: 1989 May 3	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2809	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meetings and correspondence with Jack Peel (Director of Industrial Relations at the European Commission until March 1981)) (Part 1)	Begins: 1980 Jan 1	Ends: 1989 Sep 28	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2810	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meetings with Lord Young: Enterprise Unit)	Begins: 1984 Jun 1	Ends: 1989 Feb 6	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2823	Prime Minister's Tours Abroad (Prime Minister's visit to Brussels for NATO Summit, December 1989: administrative arrangements)	Begins: 1989 Nov 19	Ends: 1989 Dec 5	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2827	Regional Policy (Inner city policy and problems: Urban Development Corporations; 'Action for Cities'; regeneration of London Docklands) (Part 15)	Begins: 1988 Sep 6	Ends: 1989 Jan 30	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2828	Regional Policy (Inner city policy and problems: Urban Development Corporations; regeneration of London Docklands) (Part 16)	Begins: 1989 Feb 7	Ends: 1989 Jul 31	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2832	Royal Family (Ownership of the Royal Palaces: Historic Royal Palaces Agency)	Begins: 1987 Nov 26	Ends: 1989 Dec 6	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2833	Royal Family (Visits to Northern Ireland by the Duke and Duchess of Kent)	Begins: 1980 Mar 31	Ends: 1989 Jul 26	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2835	Science and Technology (Maintaining the strength of the science base: the science budget) (Part 8)	Begins: 1988 Dec 1	Ends: 1989 Jun 30	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30

Per page: