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 2501 - 2525 of 3726

Per page:

File name	File title	Begins	Ends	Release date	Any docs withheld?	Classification	Pages
PREM19/2532	Soviet Union (Soviet economy: grain harvest)	Begins: 1979 Dec 1	Ends: 1987 Jun 16	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30	Any docs withheld? 1	Classification: Top Secret - UK Eyes A	Pages: 16
PREM19/2533	Soviet Union (Soviet intentions towards Iran)	Begins: 1980 Apr 16	Ends: 1987 Sep 30	Date of release: Retained		Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2534	Soviet Union (Soviet military expenditure and capabilities) (Part 1)	Begins: 1979 May 24	Ends: 1988 Dec 7	Date of release: 2017 Dec 29	Any docs withheld? 5	Classification: Top Secret	Pages: 218
PREM19/2535	Soviet Union (Domestic scene: Soviet leadership succession (Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko, Gorbachev)) (Part 2)	Begins: 1979 Jun 20	Ends: 1987 Aug 5	Date of release: 2017 Dec 29	Any docs withheld? 6	Classification: Secret	Pages: 337
PREM19/2536	Soviet Union (Soviet visa applications)	Begins: 1979 Jun 13	Ends: 1987 Jan 12	Date of release: Retained		Classification: Temporarily retained by Department
PREM19/2537	Soviet Union (Arrest and exile to Gorky of Andrei Sakharov and his wife Yelena Bonner: Prime Minister's meetings with Mrs Bonner and other family members)	Begins: 1980 Jan 23	Ends: 1987 Jan 5	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 121
PREM19/2538	Soviet Union (UK/Soviet relations; internal situation) (Part 6)	Begins: 1986 Jun 2	Ends: 1987 Jan 30	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20	Any docs withheld? 15	Classification: Top Secret	Pages: 218
PREM19/2539	Soviet Union (UK/Soviet relations; internal situation) (Part 7)	Begins: 1987 Feb 3	Ends: 1987 Apr 21	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20	Any docs withheld? 12	Classification: Top Secret	Pages: 162
PREM19/2540	Soviet Union (UK/Soviet relations; internal situation) (Part 8)	Begins: 1987 May 5	Ends: 1987 Oct 30	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20	Any docs withheld? 16	Classification: Top Secret	Pages: 301
PREM19/2541	Soviet Union (UK/Soviet relations; internal situation) (Part 9)	Begins: 1987 Nov 2	Ends: 1987 Dec 30	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20	Any docs withheld? 2	Classification: Top Secret	Pages: 241
PREM19/2542	Soviet Union (UK/Soviet relations; internal situation) (Part 10)	Begins: 1988 Jan 1	Ends: 1988 Jun 29	Date of release: Reconsideration 2027		Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2543	Soviet Union (Relations between the Soviet Union and India)	Begins: 1987 Jun 10	Ends: 1987 Jun 17	Date of release: Retained		Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2544	Soviet Union (Visit to UK by Dr Anatoly Koryagin: meeting with Prime Minister; abuse of psychiatry in USSR)	Begins: 1987 Sep 29	Ends: 1987 Nov 4	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30		Classification: Restricted	Pages: 21
PREM19/2545	Soviet Union (Visits to UK by President Gorbachev) (Part 1)	Begins: 1987 Nov 20	Ends: 1988 Oct 30	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20	Any docs withheld? 3	Classification: Top Secret	Pages: 259
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
PREM19/2547	Soviet Union (Women's Campaign for Soviet Jewry: Prime Minister's interest in cases of Ida Nudel, Anatoly Shcharansky, Alexander Paritsky) (Part 1)	Begins: 1979 Jun 25	Ends: 1987 Jan 23	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20	Any docs withheld? 3	Classification: Secret	Pages: 331
PREM19/2548	Syria (Internal situation: military capability; UK/Syrian relations)	Begins: 1980 Mar 14	Ends: 1988 Oct 25	Date of release: Retained		Classification: Temporarily retained by Department
PREM19/2549	Syria (Internal situation: UK/Syrian relations; Syrian involvement in the Hindawi affair and other terrorist activities; diplomatic and commercial measures by UK, USA, Canada, and European Community states)	Begins: 1979 May 7	Ends: 1987 Jul 27	Date of release: Retained		Classification: Temporarily retained by Department
PREM19/2550	Trade (Government purchasing policy and the 'Buy British' policy) (Part 4)	Begins: 1986 Aug 18	Ends: 1987 Oct 29	Date of release: 2016-07-2016		Classification: Restricted	Pages: 102
PREM19/2551	Trade (Multilateral trade negotiations)	Begins: 1979 May 17	Ends: 1987 Nov 19	Date of release: 2016-07-2016		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 69
PREM19/2552	Trade (UK's international trade policies: non-tariff barriers and restraints on imports; consideration of export problems; recycling of OPEC surpluses) (Part 5)	Begins: 1985 Jul 1	Ends: 1987 Jan 26	Date of release: Retained		Classification: Temporarily retained by Department
PREM19/2553	Trade (Proposed guidance on open-ended contracts: non-competitive government contracts; political (non-commercial) clauses in local authority contracts)	Begins: 1980 May 2	Ends: 1987 Jun 22	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21		Classification: Confidential & Commercial in confidence	Pages: 95
PREM19/2554	Trade (Coordination of Ministerial trade promotion visits overseas; reports on major civil overseas sales prospects)	Begins: 1981 Apr 15	Ends: 1988 Oct 6	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 250
PREM19/2555	Transport (Autoguide route guidance system)	Begins: 1988 Feb 5	Ends: 1988 Feb 22	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 22
PREM19/2556	Transport (British Rail fares: industrial action by the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) and the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF); possible line closures; British Rail finances)	Begins: 1986 Oct 9	Ends: 1988 Sep 29	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28

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