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 176 - 200 of 3727

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/391 Arts and amenities (Future of the Wernher Collection at Luton Hoo) Begins: 1980 May 20 Ends: 1981 Feb 2 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 31
PREM19/392 Australia (Transfer of uranium enrichment technology to Australia) Begins: 1980 Jul 3 Ends: 1981 Apr 29 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 27
PREM19/393 Brazil (Visit to UK by Foreign Minister, Ramiro Saraiva Guerreiro, December 1981: meeting with Prime Minister) Begins: 1981 Sep 9 Ends: 1981 Dec 1 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 15
PREM19/394 Broadcasting (BBC External Services) Begins: 1979 May 25 Ends: 1981 Oct 22 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 203
PREM19/395 Broadcasting (Legislation on broadcasting; fourth TV channel; Welsh language broadcasting (threatened hunger strike by former Plaid Cymru MP Gwynfor Evans); renewal of BBC Charter) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 Jul 16 Ends: 1981 Jun 16 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 172
PREM19/396 Cabinet (Questions of Procedure for Ministers: revision and reissue; disclosure of structure and details of Cabinet committees) Begins: 1979 May 4 Ends: 1981 Sep 23 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 171
PREM19/398 Canada (UK/Canadian relations: patriation of the Canadian constitution) (Part 3) Begins: 1981 Mar 2 Ends: 1981 Oct 23 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 386
PREM19/405 Civil service (Cynon Valley Borough Council dispute with Welsh Office over allocation of funds for highway maintenance) Begins: 1981 Feb 9 Ends: 1981 Jun 10 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 24
PREM19/406 Civil service (Annual scrutiny of departmental running costs) (Part 1) Begins: 1980 Feb 8 Ends: 1981 Jul 14 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 288
PREM19/409 Civil service (Long term management and manpower policy; Sir Derek Rayner's recommendations for reforms; Civil Service numbers and costs; chain of command review; efficiency) (Part 8) Begins: 1981 Mar 9 Ends: 1981 Sep 28 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 288
PREM19/413 Defence (Defence sales) (Part 1) Begins: 1980 Sep 2 Ends: 1981 Dec 15 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 176
PREM19/418 Economic policy (Public Spending) (Part 13) Begins: 1980 Nov 25 Ends: 1981 Feb 16 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 575
PREM19/426 Economic policy (Top Salaries Review Body (TSRB): future role; resignation of Lord Boyle of Handsworth as chairman; appointment of Lord Plowden) Begins: 1980 Jun 25 Ends: 1981 Mar 4 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 96
PREM19/429 Economic policy (Meetings of National Economic Development Council (NEDC); ministerial membership; Prime Minister's attendance) (Part 2) Begins: 1979 Dec 14 Ends: 1981 Dec 29 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 187
PREM19/432 Economic policy (Standing Commission on Pay Comparability; abolition of the Commission; future of Pay Review Bodies) (Part 3) Begins: 1980 Jul 4 Ends: 1981 Aug 5 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 117
PREM19/433 Economic policy (Inquiry into Value of Pensions (chairman: Sir Bernard Scott); index linked public sector pensions) (Part 2) Begins: 1980 Nov 28 Ends: 1981 Jun 4 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 246
PREM19/434 Economic policy (Correspondence with Armand Hammer, chairman of Occidental Petroleum; meetings with Prime Minister; proposals for a polyethylene plant in Scotland; export licence for Leicester Codex) Begins: 1980 Sep 2 Ends: 1981 Aug 4 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 157
PREM19/435 Economic policy (Brandt Commission; relations with developing countries; North/South Dialogue; Cancun Summit, Mexico) (Part 2) Begins: 1980 Nov 12 Ends: 1981 Sep 24 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 263
PREM19/442 Economic policy (Public sector pay policy; arbitration arrangements; Treasury monitoring reports) (Part 3) Begins: 1980 Oct 31 Ends: 1981 Mar 11 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 186
PREM19/443 Economic policy (Public sector pay policy; arbitration arrangements; Treasury monitoring reports) (Part 4) Begins: 1981 Mar 16 Ends: 1981 Aug 6 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 197
PREM19/446 Economic policy (G7 Summit - Ottawa) (Part 7) Begins: 1981 Jul 16 Ends: 1981 Nov 10 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 252
PREM19/451 Egypt (Visits to UK by Vice President Mubarak in June 1979, May 1980 and September 1980: calls on the Prime Minister) Begins: 1979 May 29 Ends: 1980 Sep 8 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 156
PREM19/452 Energy (Mossmorran ethylene cracker project: possibility of Government assistance) Begins: 1981 May 21 Ends: 1981 Aug 17 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 21
PREM19/454 Energy (Proposal for North Sea gas gathering pipeline) Begins: 1979 Jul 2 Ends: 1981 Sep 14 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 243
PREM19/457 European policy (European Community budget) (Part 10) Begins: 1980 Sep 23 Ends: 1981 Feb 27 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 191
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