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 76 - 100 of 3727

Per page:

File name	File title	Begins	Ends	Release date	Any docs withheld?	Classification	Pages
PREM19/4488	Trinidad and Tobago (UK/Trinidad and Tobago relations: internal situation) (Part 1)	Begins: 1981 Nov 13	Ends: 1993 May 27	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4486	Economic Policy (Unitary taxation) (Part 1)	Begins: 1983 Jul 7	Ends: 1993 May 8	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4481	Transport (Road safety) (Part 1)	Begins: 1983 Apr 28	Ends: 1993 Jul 28	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4480	Transport (Road freight transport and lorry weights) (Part 2)	Begins: 1982 Oct 4	Ends: 1993 Sep 15	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4477	Transport (East London river crossing)	Begins: 1984 May 1	Ends: 1993 Jul 7	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4466	Trade (Overseas trade statistics)	Begins: 1987 May 15	Ends: 1993 Feb 25	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28		Classification: Secret	Pages: 76
PREM19/4464	Trade and Industry (Government purchasing policy and Buy British policy) (Part 6)	Begins: 1990 Mar 15	Ends: 1993 Mar 8	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4463	Togo (UK/Togo relations: internal situation) (Part 1)	Begins: 1983 Jan 7	Ends: 1993 Jun 15	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4461	Sweden (Prime Minister's meeting with Carl Bildt, Leader of the Swedish Moderate (Conservative) Party, 17 April 1991: includes correspondence on a cancelled meeting with the previous Party Leader, Ulf Adelsohn)	Begins: 1982 Mar 21	Ends: 1991 Apr 17	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4460	Sweden (UK/Swedish relations: internal situation) (Part 1)	Begins: 1981 May 12	Ends: 1993 May 7	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4458	Sport (Britain's sporting achievements: review of sport 1987-1988: review of sports policy)	Begins: 1987 Feb 11	Ends: 1993 Jul 9	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4455	Spain (Visit by Spanish leader of the Opposition, Felipe Gonzalez and his successor, Jose Maria Aznar) (Part 1)	Begins: 1981 Feb 2	Ends: 1993 May 18	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4454	South Africa (Visits to the UK by Nelson Mandela)	Begins: 1990 Mar 5	Ends: 1993 Oct 15	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28	Any docs withheld? 8	Classification: Secret - Cab One	Pages: 243
PREM19/4452	South Africa (Visits of South African President, FW de Klerk) (Part 2)	Begins: 1990 Feb 28	Ends: 1993 Sep 30	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4451	Solomon Islands (UK relations with the Solomon Islands)	Begins: 1979 Jun 29	Ends: 1993 Aug 9	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4449	Social Services (Uprating of social security benefits) (Part 7)	Begins: 1990 Nov 1	Ends: 1993 Feb 25	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4443	Social Sevices (White Paper on the Reform of the Industrial Injuries Scheme)	Begins: 1981 Nov 9	Ends: 1993 Mar 29	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4442	Social Services (Summary of Health and Personal Social Services Accounts, 1979-1980 and 1980-1981: includes correspondence and the consultation document on the Social Work Services Inspectorate in Scotland, 1993)	Begins: 1981 Mar 13	Ends: 1993 Mar 30	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4440	Singapore (Relations with UK: visits by Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew; meetings with Prime Minister) (Part 2)	Begins: 1988 Apr 9	Ends: 1993 Dec 2	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4439	Seychelles (UK/Seychelles relations: internal situation) (Part 1)	Begins: 1979 Jun 28	Ends: 1993 Sep 9	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4435	Science and Technology (Intellectual property and innovation: problems faced by private inventors; Intellectual Property Bill) (Part 34)	Begins: 1986 Apr 2	Ends: 1993 Dec 22	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4418	Royal Family (Prince Charles' interest in youth unemployment: The Prince's Trust; The Prince's Youth Business Trust) (Part 1)	Begins: 1981 Oct 12	Ends: 1993 Apr 30	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4412	Royal Family (40th Anniversary of The Queen's Accession to the Throne: includes 30th Anniversary of The Queen's Coronation)	Begins: 1983 Feb 10	Ends: 1993 Aug 4	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4409	Qatar (UK/Qatar relations: internal situation) (Part 1)	Begins: 1982 Feb 15	Ends: 1993 Dec 14	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4400	Prime Minister's Tours Abroad (Prime Minister's visit to World Economic Forum in Davos, 28 January-1 February 1992: includes correspondence on the 1990 annual meeting)	Begins: 1990 Sep 10	Ends: 1993 Oct 8	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28

Per page: