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 2926 - 2950 of 3726

Per page:

File name	File title	Begins	Ends	Release date	Any docs withheld?	Classification	Pages
PREM19/3008	Government Machinery (Future of the Crown Agents: guidelines on procedure for tribunals of inquiry) (Part 2)	Begins: 1987 Nov 18	Ends: 1990 Jun 5	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 57
PREM19/3009	Government Machinery (Departmental responsibility for response to marine oil and chemical spills)	Begins: 1983 Mar 30	Ends: 1990 Feb 14	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/3010	Government Machinery (Departmental summaries of political events)	Begins: 1987 Jan 28	Ends: 1990 Mar 9	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 37
PREM19/3011	Government Machinery (Management and financing of the Registration Service; future of the Office of Population, Censuses and Surveys)	Begins: 1983 Sep 23	Ends: 1990 Jan 15	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/3013	Government Machinery (Transfer of responsibility for the Passport Office from the Foreign Secretary to the Home Secretary: possible private sector involvement)	Begins: 1983 Jun 23	Ends: 1990 Mar 2	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/3014	Government Machinery (The Government's accountability for events under previous Administrations)	Begins: 1990 Mar 12	Ends: 1990 Mar 22	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/3015	Government Machinery (The Inland Revenue)	Begins: 1986 Jun 9	Ends: 1990 Jul 27	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/3016	Government Machinery (Machinery of government changes: organisation at the centre; Whitehall reorganisation) (Part 7)	Begins: 1987 May 8	Ends: 1990 Jun 29	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20
PREM19/3017	Government Machinery (Rayner Scrutiny programme: promotion of efficiency and elimination of waste; value for money seminars; Next Steps initiative) (Part 32)	Begins: 1989 Nov 6	Ends: 1990 Feb 28	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/3018	Government Machinery (Rayner Scrutiny Programme: promotion of efficiency and elimination of waste; value for money seminars; Next Steps initiative) (Part 33)	Begins: 1990 Mar 1	Ends: 1990 Mar 30	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20
PREM19/3019	Government Machinery ( Rayner Scrutiny Programme: promotion of efficiency and elimination of waste; value for money seminars; Next Steps initiative) (Part 34)	Begins: 1990 Apr 2	Ends: 1990 Oct 19	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20
PREM19/3020	Home Affairs (Sentencing policy: Criminal Justice Bill) (Part 4)	Begins: 1990 Jan 12	Ends: 1990 Sep 30	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30	Any docs withheld? 1	Classification: Confidential	Pages: 163
PREM19/3021	Home Affairs (Civil disorder) (Part 4)	Begins: 1988 Jun 21	Ends: 1990 Dec 4	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/3023	Home Affairs (Financial provision after divorce)	Begins: 1982 Jan 1	Ends: 1990 Oct 31	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/3025	Home Affairs (Policy towards the Prison Service: Working Group on Disruption in the Prison Service; private sector involvement in the remand system) (Part 5)	Begins: 1989 Feb 2	Ends: 1990 Mar 20	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30	Any docs withheld? 6	Classification: Secret	Pages: 176
PREM19/3026	Home Affairs (Report of the Committee on Restrictions Against Disabled People; social security benefits and employment and training services for disabled people)	Begins: 1982 May 7	Ends: 1990 Jun 27	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 384
PREM19/3027	Home Affairs (Football hooliganism; Football Spectators Bill; Taylor Report on the Hillsborough Stadium Disaster) (Part 8)	Begins: 1989 Feb 2	Ends: 1990 Jan 31	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/3028	Home Affairs (The campaign against and the use of chemical herbicides, especially 2,4,5-T: pesticide policy)	Begins: 1980 Jun 1	Ends: 1990 Apr 3	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/3029	Home Affairs (The Unification Church, the 'Moonies': Prime Minister's meeting with the All Party Group on Cults)	Begins: 1980 Mar 17	Ends: 1990 Aug 7	Date of release: 2018 Jul 24
PREM19/3032	Housing (Housing policy: homelessness) (Part 16)	Begins: 1989 Jul 3	Ends: 1990 Jun 22	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20
PREM19/3033	Housing (Private rented sector)	Begins: 1984 Feb 20	Ends: 1990 Apr 23	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20
PREM19/3034	Hungary (UK/Hungarian relations: internal situation) (Part 3)	Begins: 1987 Mar 10	Ends: 1990 Jun 26	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30	Any docs withheld? 4	Classification: Secret	Pages: 284
PREM19/3037	India (Visit to the UK by Ramaswamy Venkataraman, President of India, April 1990)	Begins: 1990 Feb 1	Ends: 1990 Apr 30	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/3038	Industrial Policy (Dispute between the National Graphical Association and the Stockport Messenger Group: print unions dispute at Wapping)	Begins: 1983 Nov 26	Ends: 1990 Feb 13	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/3039	Industrial Policy (Problems associated with UK dependence on imported minerals: stockpile of strategic materials)	Begins: 1979 Aug 13	Ends: 1990 Aug 22	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20

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