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 301 - 325 of 3727

Per page:

File name	File title	Begins	Ends	Release date
PREM19/2836	Science and Technology (Maintaining the strength of the science base: the science budget) (Part 9)	Begins: 1989 Jul 4	Ends: 1989 Dec 22	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2838	Scotland (Scottish High Court judges: possible homosexual scandal)	Begins: 1989 Dec 22	Ends: 1989 Dec 22	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2858	Somalia (Visit to the UK by Major-General Mohamed Siad Barre, President of Somalia (June 1988); visit by Mohamed Ali Samatar, Prime Minister of Somalia (January 1989))	Begins: 1982 Mar 4	Ends: 1989 Apr 25	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2876	Tanzania (Visits to the UK of President Julius Nyerere and President Ali Hassan Mwinyi)	Begins: 1979 Aug 20	Ends: 1989 Apr 6	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2878	Trade (Government purchasing policy and the 'Buy British' policy) (Part 5)	Begins: 1987 Nov 2	Ends: 1990 Dec 11	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2879	Trade (Commodity policy: International Tin Council litigation; International Coffee Agreement) (Part 4)	Begins: 1986 Nov 5	Ends: 1989 Nov 25	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2881	Trade (Trade in textiles and clothes: Multi-Fibre Agreement (MFA)) (Part 3)	Begins: 1982 May 18	Ends: 1989 Nov 29	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2883	Trade (Consumer safety)	Begins: 1984 Feb 6	Ends: 1989 May 31	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2884	Transport (London Regional Transport: Central London Rail Study) (Part 2)	Begins: 1986 Dec 11	Ends: 1989 Mar 20	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2887	Transport (Consultative paper on the Government's response to the Blennerhassett Committee's recommendations on drinking and driving: White Paper on road safety)	Begins: 1979 Jul 26	Ends: 1989 Nov 28	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2889	United Nations (International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Plenipotentiary Conference, Nice, 1989)	Begins: 1989 May 1	Ends: 1989 Jun 22	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2896	Disasters (Fire at King's Cross Underground Station, 18 November 1989)	Begins: 1987 Nov 19	Ends: 1989 Jul 31	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2898	Aerospace (Radio equipment for the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA): NATO air defence radar procurement)	Begins: 1979 Nov 21	Ends: 1990 Jul 20	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2899	Aerospace (Review of Scottish lowland airports policy)	Begins: 1984 Jul 6	Ends: 1990 Mar 5	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2900	Aerospace (The fourth and fifth terminals for Heathrow Airport: developments at Heathrow)	Begins: 1979 Dec 3	Ends: 1990 Jan 5	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2902	Agriculture (Discussion paper by Consultative Board of the Joint Consultative Organisation for Research and Development in Agriculture and Food: correspondence with Lord Rothschild; Priorities Board for Research and Development in Agriculture and Food) (Part 1)	Begins: 1983 Jun 20	Ends: 1990 May 29	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2904	Agriculture (Salmonella and eggs) (Part 1)	Begins: 1988 Dec 8	Ends: 1990 Feb 27	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2905	Agriculture (Salmonella and eggs) (Part 2)	Begins: 1990 Apr 6	Ends: 1990 Nov 23	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2908	Arts and Amenities (Future of the British Library: Prime Minister's meetings with Lord Trend and Sir Frederick Dainton and Minister for the Arts, Richard Luce)	Begins: 1979 Aug 21	Ends: 1990 May 11	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2925	Civil Service (Property Services Agency (PSA) restructuring: privatisation of PSA services) (Part 3)	Begins: 1988 Mar 4	Ends: 1990 Jul 27	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2926	Civil Service (Speeches by the Heads of the Civil Service, Sir Robert Armstrong and Sir Robin Butler)	Begins: 1985 Jun 14	Ends: 1990 Oct 1	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2928	Comoros (UK/Comoros relations)	Begins: 1987 Jun 5	Ends: 1990 Oct 16	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2932	Defence (Future UK defence policy) (Part 4)	Begins: 1989 Apr 11	Ends: 1990 Jul 28	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2937	Defence (Prime Ministers seminar on defence questions, Chequers, 30 September 1989)	Begins: 1989 Jul 4	Ends: 1990 Jan 8	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2941	Economic Policy (Brandt Commission memorandum 'Common Crisis': 'Facing One World', report by an Independent Group on Financial Flows to Developing Countries) (Part 5)	Begins: 1983 Jan 27	Ends: 1990 Sep 4	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30

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