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 3476 - 3500 of 3727

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/3314 European Policy (European Convention on Human Rights: Prime Minister's visit to Paris for Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) Summit, November 1990) (Part 3) Begins: 1989 Oct 4 Ends: 1990 Dec 17 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Any docs withheld? 6 Classification: Secret Pages: 365
PREM19/1548 Ireland (Situation in Northern Ireland) (Part 19) Begins: 1984 Dec 31 Ends: 1985 Mar 28 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Top Secret - UK Eyes A Pages: 366
PREM19/1498 Foreign Policy (Prime Minister's visit to South-East Asia, April 1985) (Part 2) Begins: 1985 Apr 5 Ends: 1985 Jul 27 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 14 Classification: Secret Pages: 367
PREM19/1593 Parliament (House of Commons procedure: election of Speaker; appointment of Departmental Select Committees; Government reply to Public Accounts Committee; rules on release of documents and disclosure of information to Select Committees) (Part 6) Begins: 1983 Apr 12 Ends: 1985 May 28 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 367
PREM19/627 Argentina (Falklands) (Part 16) Begins: 1982 May 11 Ends: 1982 May 14 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Secret Pages: 368
PREM19/823 Japan (Prime Minister's visit to Japan, September 1982; proposed technology agreement) (Part 1) Begins: 1981 Jan 28 Ends: 1982 Sep 20 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Any docs withheld? 2 Classification: Confidential Pages: 368
PREM19/1095 Nationalised industries (Prospects for the steel industry; plant closures; future of Ian MacGregor, chairman of British Steel Corporation (BSC)) (Part 12) Begins: 1982 Dec 1 Ends: 1983 Jun 30 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 368
PREM19/1174 Civil service (Long-term management and manpower policy; Civil Service manpower; personnel work in Civil Service; the extension of unified grading; equal opportunities) (Part 14) Begins: 1983 Oct 3 Ends: 1984 Jan 25 Date of release: 2014 Jan 3 Classification: Secret Pages: 368
PREM19/1207 Economic policy (G7 Summit - London) (Part 15) Begins: 1984 Mar 2 Ends: 1984 May 21 Date of release: 2014 Jan 3 Any docs withheld? 2 Classification: Secret Pages: 368
PREM19/2339 National Health (Expenditure and efficiency in the National Health Service (NHS): NHS Review) (Part 13) Begins: 1988 Jun 1 Ends: 1988 Jun 29 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Secret Pages: 368
PREM19/3372 Government Machinery (Review of Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA): Government Telecommunications Service) Begins: 1984 Jan 1 Ends: 1991 Jan 7 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Any docs withheld? 2 Classification: Confidential Pages: 368
PREM19/2546 Soviet Union (Visits to UK by President Gorbachev) (Part 2) Begins: 1988 Nov 10 Ends: 1988 Dec 29 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Any docs withheld? 3 Classification: Secret Pages: 368
PREM19/1182 Defence (Deployment of Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) in Europe) (Part 4) Begins: 1983 Sep 21 Ends: 1984 Jun 29 Date of release: 2014 Jan 3 Classification: Top Secret Pages: 369
PREM19/1560 Local Government (Relations with central government, organisation & finance; Chequers meeting on Community Charge) (Part 26) Begins: 1985 Mar 1 Ends: 1985 May 31 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 369
PREM19/1834 Local Government (Correspondence from Sir John Sainsbury on planning controls: general planning enquiries) (Part 3) Begins: 1986 Jul 23 Ends: 1986 Dec 23 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 369
PREM19/3069 Manpower (Special employment measures: future of the Employment Service; training policy) (Part 22) Begins: 1989 Aug 1 Ends: 1990 Jan 23 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 369
PREM19/530 Middle East (Situation in the Middle East) (Part 5) Begins: 1980 Sep 1 Ends: 1981 Apr 30 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 370
PREM19/1242 France (Prime Minister's visits to France; meetings with President Mitterrand; Anglo-French Summits) (Part 3) Begins: 1982 Sep 21 Ends: 1984 Apr 18 Date of release: 2014 Jan 3 Classification: Secret Pages: 370
PREM19/1344 Posts and telecommunications (Future of the Post Office; telecommunications liberalisation and privatisation; Telecommunications Bill; draft licence for British Telecom (BT)) (Part 7) Begins: 1983 Apr 12 Ends: 1984 Jan 11 Date of release: 2014 Jan 3 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 370
PREM19/2338 National Health (Expenditure and efficiency in the National Health Service (NHS): NHS Review) (Part 12) Begins: 1988 May 4 Ends: 1988 May 29 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Secret Pages: 370
PREM19/3077 Middle East (Situation in the Middle East: Iraqi invasion of Kuwait) (Part 24) Begins: 1990 Aug 20 Ends: 1990 Aug 23 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Classification: Top Secret Pages: 370
PREM19/3691 Economic Policy (Reports of the Pay Review Bodies: review of the Office of Manpower Economics (OME)) (Part 11) Begins: 1990 Feb 1 Ends: 1992 Jan 24 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Secret Pages: 370
PREM19/3154 Science and Technology (Advisory Council for Applied Research and Development (ACARD): reports on biotechnology) Begins: 1980 Jan 28 Ends: 1990 Nov 8 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Classification: Confidential Pages: 370
PREM19/3102 NATO (NATO Summits) (Part 4) Begins: 1989 Nov 27 Ends: 1990 Jun 27 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Any docs withheld? 3 Classification: Secret Pages: 370
PREM19/3132 Prime Minister's Tours Abroad (Prime Minister's visit to Switzerland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, September 1990: administrative arrangements) Begins: 1989 Dec 1 Ends: 1990 Oct 18 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 8 Classification: Confidential Pages: 370
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