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 2776 - 2800 of 3726

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/2832 Royal Family (Ownership of the Royal Palaces: Historic Royal Palaces Agency) Begins: 1987 Nov 26 Ends: 1989 Dec 6 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2833 Royal Family (Visits to Northern Ireland by the Duke and Duchess of Kent) Begins: 1980 Mar 31 Ends: 1989 Jul 26 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2834 St Christopher and Nevis (Relations with UK; independence; internal situation) (Part 1) Begins: 1981 Mar 4 Ends: 1989 Mar 30 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20
PREM19/2835 Science and Technology (Maintaining the strength of the science base: the science budget) (Part 8) Begins: 1988 Dec 1 Ends: 1989 Jun 30 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2836 Science and Technology (Maintaining the strength of the science base: the science budget) (Part 9) Begins: 1989 Jul 4 Ends: 1989 Dec 22 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2837 Science and Technology (Consideration of British candidates for Nobel Prizes for science) Begins: 1989 Apr 11 Ends: 1989 Apr 13 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 6
PREM19/2838 Scotland (Scottish High Court judges: possible homosexual scandal) Begins: 1989 Dec 22 Ends: 1989 Dec 22 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2845 Security (Security considerations in relation to the appointment of Ministers, Parliamentary Private Secretaries and research assistants) Begins: 1979 May 4 Ends: 1989 Mar 1 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20
PREM19/2847 Security (Access to classified documents and information by individuals and allied countries) Begins: 1984 Aug 2 Ends: 1989 Dec 15 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20
PREM19/2849 Security (Leak to The Observer relating to Westland plc) Begins: 1985 Dec 24 Ends: 1989 Jun 16 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2854 Senegal (UK/Senegal relations: visits to UK by President Diouf, February 1986 and November 1988) Begins: 1979 Oct 1 Ends: 1989 Sep 18 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Classification: Confidential Pages: 290
PREM19/2855 Social Services (Statutory right to paid time off for ante-natal care) Begins: 1980 Mar 10 Ends: 1989 Sep 1 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 13
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
PREM19/2857 Social Services (Long-term strategy for social security operations) (Part 2) Begins: 1986 Jun 24 Ends: 1989 Jun 19 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 129
PREM19/2858 Somalia (Visit to the UK by Major-General Mohamed Siad Barre, President of Somalia (June 1988); visit by Mohamed Ali Samatar, Prime Minister of Somalia (January 1989)) Begins: 1982 Mar 4 Ends: 1989 Apr 25 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2860 South Africa (Internal situation: relations with UK) (Part 19) Begins: 1989 Apr 6 Ends: 1989 Aug 31 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Any docs withheld? 12 Classification: Top Secret Pages: 330
PREM19/2861 South Africa (Internal situation: relations with UK) (Part 20) Begins: 1989 Sep 4 Ends: 1989 Oct 30 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Any docs withheld? 2 Classification: Secret Pages: 267
PREM19/2862 South Africa (Situation in Namibia) (Part 4) Begins: 1986 Mar 3 Ends: 1989 Apr 29 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Any docs withheld? 3 Classification: Secret - Cab One Pages: 363
PREM19/2863 South Africa (Visit to UK by F W de Klerk, leader of the South African National Party, June 1989) Begins: 1980 Feb 12 Ends: 1989 Jul 11 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Any docs withheld? 9 Classification: Secret - Cab One Pages: 53
PREM19/2864 South Africa (Visits to London by South African Finance Ministers: Senator Owen Horwood (October 1979) and Barend du Plessis (April 1989)) Begins: 1979 Jun 19 Ends: 1989 Apr 24 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Secret - Cab One Pages: 78
PREM19/2865 South Africa (Visits to the UK by the South African Foreign Minister, Pik Botha) Begins: 1979 Oct 16 Ends: 1989 Mar 15 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 74
PREM19/2867 Soviet Union (Visits to the UK by Soviet Deputy Prime Ministers: Leonid Konstandov, Vladimir Kamentsev and Aleksandra Biryukova) Begins: 1983 Sep 23 Ends: 1989 Jul 26 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 65
PREM19/2868 Soviet Union (Visit to the UK by President Mikhail Gorbachev, April 1989) (Part 3) Begins: 1989 Jan 3 Ends: 1989 Mar 31 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 8 Classification: Secret Pages: 492
PREM19/2869 Soviet Union (Visit to the UK by President Gorbachev, 5-7 April 1989) (Part 4) Begins: 1989 Apr 2 Ends: 1989 May 3 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Top Secret Pages: 404
PREM19/2870 Soviet Union (Visit to the UK by Dr Andrei Sakharov: meeting with the Prime Minister, 23 June 1989) Begins: 1989 Apr 26 Ends: 1989 Jun 23 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 15
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