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 3426 - 3450 of 3727

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/110 Rhodesia (Situation in) (Part 5) Begins: 1979 Aug 9 Ends: 1979 Aug 30 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 355
PREM19/1016 Energy (North Sea oil prices; heavy fuel oil prices; oil prices in the longer term) (Part 1) Begins: 1980 Jan 30 Ends: 1983 Jun 23 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 355
PREM19/1160 Manpower (Measures to counter unemployment; annexes to report by Professor Patrick Minford, 'UK unemployment - analysis and policy proposals') (Part 8C) Begins: 1982 Sep 6 Ends: 1983 Jan 29 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 355
PREM19/2764 Local Government (Future of the rating system: rating revaluation; Community Charge) (Part 13) Begins: 1989 Jun 1 Ends: 1989 Jul 31 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 355
PREM19/2376 Parliament (House of Commons procedure: Select Committees) (Part 8) Begins: 1986 Jul 3 Ends: 1987 Jan 28 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Confidential Pages: 355
PREM19/2778 National Health (Expenditure and efficiency in the National Health Service (NHS): community care) (Part 20) Begins: 1989 Mar 2 Ends: 1989 Apr 28 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 355
PREM19/971 Cyprus (Internal situation; UK/Cypriot relations) (Part 1) Begins: 1980 Feb 29 Ends: 1983 Nov 29 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 355
PREM19/2856 Social Services (Uprating of social security benefits) (Part 4) Begins: 1987 May 6 Ends: 1989 Sep 29 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 356
PREM19/2194 Government Machinery (Monopolies and mergers) (Part 2) Begins: 1987 Mar 3 Ends: 1988 Feb 29 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Confidential Pages: 356
PREM19/3422 Local Government (Future of the rating system: rating revaluation; Community Charge) (Part 21) Begins: 1990 Nov 1 Ends: 1990 Dec 29 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Classification: Secret Pages: 356
PREM19/487 India (Prime Minister's visit to India, April 1981) (Part 1) Begins: 1981 Jan 14 Ends: 1981 Apr 19 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 357
PREM19/1037 Germany (Chancellor Helmut Kohl's visits to the UK: meetings with Prime Minister) (Part 7) Begins: 1982 Nov 29 Ends: 1983 May 16 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 357
PREM19/1244 Germany (Anglo-German relations) (Part 2) Begins: 1982 Mar 8 Ends: 1984 Sep 28 Date of release: 2014 Jan 3 Classification: Confidential Pages: 357
PREM19/1313 Manpower (Measures to counter unemployment; Youth Training Scheme; review of Community Programme) (Part 10) Begins: 1983 Jul 1 Ends: 1984 Oct 31 Date of release: 2014 Jan 3 Classification: Secret Pages: 357
PREM19/2464 Regional Policy (Inner Cities Initiative: action following report by Eric Sorensen; Ministerial and departmental responsibility for coordination and presentation of policy towards inner cities; Kenneth Clarke, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, to assume coordination responsibility; designation of further Urban Development Corporations (UDCs); Canary Wharf development by Olympia & York) (Part 12) Begins: 1987 Dec 1 Ends: 1988 Feb 29 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Confidential Pages: 357
PREM19/3478 Prime Minister (MPs' pay and pensions) (Part 7) Begins: 1987 Dec 1 Ends: 1991 Dec 20 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Classification: Confidential Pages: 357
PREM19/1446 Defence (Defence sales) (Part 5) Begins: 1985 Jan 2 Ends: 1985 Oct 25 Date of release: 2015 Jul 16 Any docs withheld? 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 357
PREM19/3211 USA (United States foreign policy: USA/European relations) (Part 3) Begins: 1987 Jan 9 Ends: 1990 Mar 22 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Any docs withheld? 22 Classification: Top Secret - Cab One Pages: 357
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
PREM19/1733 Egypt (Anglo-Egyptian relations: defence sales to Egypt; internal situation) (Part 1) Begins: 1980 Nov 4 Ends: 1986 Jun 27 Date of release: 2018 Jul 24 Any docs withheld? 9 Classification: Secret Pages: 357
PREM19/1641 South Africa (Internal situation: relations with UK) (Part 4) Begins: 1984 Oct 1 Ends: 1985 Jun 29 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 358
PREM19/1642 South Africa (Internal situation: relations with UK) (Part 5) Begins: 1985 Jul 1 Ends: 1985 Aug 31 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 2 Classification: Confidential Pages: 358
PREM19/1298 Legal procedure (United States anti-trust investigation into allegations of price fixing against British airlines, following collapse of Laker Airways) (Part 1) Begins: 1983 Mar 1 Ends: 1984 Nov 23 Date of release: 2014 Jan 3 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 359
PREM19/1619 Science and Technology (Annual Review of Government-funded Research and Development: maintaining the strength of the science base) (Part 2) Begins: 1984 Aug 2 Ends: 1985 Mar 29 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 359
PREM19/3782 Government Machinery (The way forward: the direction of future government policy; medium-term objectives) (Part 2) Begins: 1990 Apr 2 Ends: 1992 Nov 27 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Secret Pages: 359
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