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 151 - 175 of 3727

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/3126 Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meetings and correspondence with Sir Hector Laing, Chairman of United Biscuits) Begins: 1980 Apr 1 Ends: 1990 Mar 2 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 75
PREM19/3090 Ministers (Presence of Ministers in the House of Commons) Begins: 1990 Apr 11 Ends: 1990 Apr 18 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 6
PREM19/2939 Downing Street (Functions of the Prime Minister's Office) Begins: 1987 Jun 2 Ends: 1990 Mar 26 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 49
PREM19/582 Royal family (Duke of Edinburgh's statement on nuclear war: correspondence between the Duke and Fenner Brockway, Lord Brockway) Begins: 1981 Feb 12 Ends: 1981 Apr 9 Date of release: 2015 Apr 22 Any docs withheld? 16 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 34
PREM19/1743 Environmental Affairs (The refurbishment of Trafalgar Square) Begins: 1986 Jun 24 Ends: 1986 Jun 30 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 4
PREM19/2971 Environmental Affairs (World Commission on Environment and Development: Bergen Conference 'Action for a Common Future', May 1990) Begins: 1988 Jul 5 Ends: 1990 Feb 14 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 98
PREM19/1600 Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with John Blackburn MP about closure of Round Oak Steelworks, Dudley) Begins: 1982 Dec 4 Ends: 1983 Mar 18 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 106
PREM19/1602 Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with Field Marshal Sir Edwin Bramall, retiring Chief of the Defence Staff) Begins: 1982 Sep 7 Ends: 1985 Nov 2 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 9
PREM19/1603 Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with Trevor Skeet MP and Sir Gerard Vaughan MP of Parliamentary and Scientific Committee, to discuss CERN (European Organisation for Nuclear Research): UK participation in high energy particle physics) Begins: 1985 Jun 13 Ends: 1985 Jul 17 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 30
PREM19/1605 Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meetings with Gordon Brown MP to discuss factory closures in his Dunfermline East constituency and general regional policy) Begins: 1983 Sep 11 Ends: 1985 Jan 11 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 39
PREM19/4583 Cabinet (Cabinet meetings) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 May 6 Ends: 1994 Jul 20 Date of release: 2018 Dec 28 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 104
PREM19/3114 Prime Minister (Prime Minister's speech at Conrad Black dinner, 21 June 1988, and meeting with Conrad Black and the Board of Hollinger, 6 September 1989) Begins: 1988 Jun 21 Ends: 1990 Apr 2 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 34
PREM19/3212 Broadcasting (Conservative Central Office media monitoring: BBC coverage of the American bombing raid on Libya, 15 April 1986) (Part 3 annex) Begins: 1986 Sep 20 Ends: 1986 Oct 30 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 72
PREM19/1700 Downing Street (Libel action by Richard Holt MP against The Teacher magazine: risk that No.10 staff may be called to give evidence) Begins: 1986 Mar 17 Ends: 1986 May 22 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 31
PREM19/1768 Government Buildings (Edward Erdman Surveyors report on the redevelopment of the Bridge Street site) Begins: 1983 Feb 1 Ends: 1986 Feb 28 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 40
PREM19/1781 Government Machinery (Non-departmental public bodies (quangos): review programme) (Part 3) Begins: 1986 Aug 1 Ends: 1986 Sep 9 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 34
PREM19/1784 Home Affairs (Prime Minister's seminar on crime prevention, January 1986) (Part 1) Begins: 1985 Aug 8 Ends: 1986 Mar 20 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 357
PREM19/1793 Home Affairs (The 1978 annual report by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC): financing of the NSPCC) Begins: 1979 Jul 2 Ends: 1986 Jan 22 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 4 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 84
PREM19/1611 Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with James Hill MP to discuss Southampton's Docks and Freeport) Begins: 1985 May 16 Ends: 1985 Oct 14 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 40
PREM19/1848 Memorials (Lord Shinwell's memorial service) Begins: 1986 May 21 Ends: 1986 Jun 18 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 4
PREM19/1849 Memorials (General Sir Brian Horrocks' memorial service) Begins: 1985 Jan 24 Ends: 1985 Jan 31 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 6
PREM19/1934 Science and Technology (Women into Science and Engineering Year, 1984; Prime Minister's meetings with Lady Platt, Chairman of the Equal Opportunities Commission) Begins: 1983 Dec 12 Ends: 1986 Jul 7 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 161
PREM19/1935 Science and Technology (Prime Minister's seminar and reception for industrial designers, January 1982) (Part 1) Begins: 1981 Oct 19 Ends: 1985 Dec 10 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 139
PREM19/1936 Science and Technology (Prime Minister's meeting with industrialists and leading academics, February 1985; the Engineering and Technology Programme) Begins: 1985 Oct 28 Ends: 1986 Mar 7 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 298
PREM19/2407 Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with Gerry Steinberg MP, 23 February 1988) Begins: 1987 Dec 14 Ends: 1988 Mar 18 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 27
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