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 2551 - 2575 of 3726

Per page:

File name	File title	Begins	Ends	Release date	Any docs withheld?	Classification	Pages
PREM19/2582	Aerospace (Air Combat Manoeuvring Installation in the North Sea)	Begins: 1989 Apr 23	Ends: 1989 Jun 6	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20
PREM19/2583	Aerospace (Westland Helicopters) (Part 7)	Begins: 1987 Feb 2	Ends: 1989 Jun 12	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2584	Agricultural (Agricultural Wages Board)	Begins: 1983 Mar 28	Ends: 1989 Jan 22	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30		Classification: Secret	Pages: 59
PREM19/2585	Argentina (Falklands) (Part 43)	Begins: 1989 Jan 2	Ends: 1989 Dec 13	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20	Any docs withheld? 13	Classification: Top Secret - Cab One	Pages: 269
PREM19/2586	Arts and Amenities (Prime Minister's meeting with Lord Sieff to discuss the possible acquisition of the Royal Dental Hospital site by the National Portrait Gallery: future of the National Portrait Gallery)	Begins: 1986 Aug 26	Ends: 1989 Apr 13	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2587	Arts and Amenities (Preservation of the Rose Theatre)	Begins: 1989 May 9	Ends: 1989 Jun 12	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2588	Australia (UK/Australian relations: internal situation) (Part 2)	Begins: 1986 Jan 3	Ends: 1989 Dec 29	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30	Any docs withheld? 2	Classification: Confidential	Pages: 267
PREM19/2589	Australia (Visits to the UK by Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen, State Premier of Queensland, and his successor Mike Ahern)	Begins: 1979 Jul 9	Ends: 1989 Mar 1	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30	Any docs withheld? 2	Classification: Confidential	Pages: 57
PREM19/2590	Austria (Visits to the UK by Austrian Foreign Ministers: Erwin Lanc (November 1983) and Alois Mock (December 1989))	Begins: 1983 Sep 2	Ends: 1989 Dec 22	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30		Classification: Secret	Pages: 36
PREM19/2591	Botswana (Visits to the UK by President Masire of Botswana to Britain)	Begins: 1980 Sep 18	Ends: 1989 Jun 8	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2592	Broadcasting (Legislation on broadcasting; Channel 4; community radio) (Part 3)	Begins: 1988 May 3	Ends: 1989 Dec 21	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30		Classification: Secret	Pages: 202
PREM19/2593	Broadcasting (Broadcasting policy) (Part 7)	Begins: 1988 Oct 3	Ends: 1989 Apr 27	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 403
PREM19/2594	Broadcasting (Broadcasting policy) (Part 8)	Begins: 1989 May 2	Ends: 1989 Jun 30	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 259
PREM19/2595	Broadcasting (Broadcasting policy: Broadcasting Bill) (Part 9)	Begins: 1989 Jul 3	Ends: 1989 Oct 31	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30	Any docs withheld? 6	Classification: Secret	Pages: 285
PREM19/2596	Broadcasting (Prime Minister's seminar on broadcasting, 21 September 1987; follow-up action) (Part 2)	Begins: 1987 Sep 22	Ends: 1989 Aug 3	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 106
PREM19/2597	China (Internal situation in China) (Part 1)	Begins: 1979 May 30	Ends: 1989 Jul 21	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2598	Civil Service (Election of officials in the Civil and Public Services Association (CPSA))	Begins: 1981 Nov 13	Ends: 1986 Jul 7	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30		Classification: Secret	Pages: 10
PREM19/2599	Civil Service (Pay and pensions: pay dispute and strike) (Part 17)	Begins: 1987 Apr 2	Ends: 1989 Jan 31	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2600	Civil Service (Annual scrutiny of departmental running costs: Andrew Report on the 'Review of Government Legal Services') (Part 4)	Begins: 1989 Jan 13	Ends: 1989 Jul 21	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 23
PREM19/2601	Civil Service (Position of the Head of the Civil Service)	Begins: 1987 Jun 25	Ends: 1987 Jun 25	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 7
PREM19/2602	Civil Service (Proposed BBC TV series on the Civil Service: ITV and radio programmes on Whitehall)	Begins: 1979 Jul 3	Ends: 1989 Apr 27	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 63
PREM19/2603	Civil Service (Reimbursement of home to office travel; taxation of Civil Service allowances)	Begins: 1983 Feb 10	Ends: 1987 Apr 11	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20
PREM19/2604	Civil Service (Facilities agreement for non-industrial Civil Service unions)	Begins: 1979 Dec 14	Ends: 1989 Oct 17	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2605	Commonwealth (Development Corporation: annual reports)	Begins: 1980 May 7	Ends: 1989 May 2	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 69
PREM19/2606	Commonwealth (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings (CHOGM), Kuala Lumpur, October 1989) (Part 14)	Begins: 1988 Dec 14	Ends: 1989 Oct 12	Date of release: Retained		Classification: Temporarily retained by Department

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