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 3001 - 3025 of 3726

Per page:

File name	File title	Begins	Ends	Release date	Any docs withheld?	Classification	Pages
PREM19/3097	Nationalised Industries (Coal mines) (Part 21)	Begins: 1987 Nov 4	Ends: 1990 Jun 28	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30		Classification: Secret	Pages: 321
PREM19/3098	Nationalised Industries (Gas and electricity pricing policy: privatisation of the electricity supply industry) (Part 18)	Begins: 1990 Jan 2	Ends: 1990 Apr 6	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30	Any docs withheld? 6	Classification: Secret	Pages: 259
PREM19/3099	Nationalised Industries (Gas and electricity pricing policy: privatisation of the electricity supply industry) (Part 19)	Begins: 1990 May 1	Ends: 1990 Nov 15	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30	Any docs withheld? 8	Classification: Secret	Pages: 260
PREM19/3100	NATO (NATO Ministerial meetings)	Begins: 1979 May 31	Ends: 1990 May 30	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20		Classification: Secret	Pages: 212
PREM19/3101	NATO (NATO Policy)	Begins: 1980 Jun 20	Ends: 1990 Apr 25	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20		Classification: Secret	Pages: 311
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
PREM19/3103	Nigeria (UK/Nigeria relations: internal situation) (Part 2)	Begins: 1986 Oct 22	Ends: 1990 Dec 10	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20	Any docs withheld? 9	Classification: Secret	Pages: 360
PREM19/3104	Norway (Internal situation; relations with UK)	Begins: 1981 Feb 3	Ends: 1990 May 30	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20	Any docs withheld? 1	Classification: Confidential	Pages: 277
PREM19/3106	Parliament (Appointment of Parliamentary Private Secretaries) (Part 3)	Begins: 1986 Jun 10	Ends: 1990 Dec 31	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20	Any docs withheld? 8	Classification: Confidential	Pages: 430
PREM19/3107	Parliament (House of Commons procedure: Select Committees) (Part 10)	Begins: 1989 Apr 7	Ends: 1990 May 29	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20		Classification: Confidential - not for NAO eyes	Pages: 397
PREM19/3108	Parliament (Legislative programme) (Part 19)	Begins: 1989 Oct 2	Ends: 1990 Mar 30	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 444
PREM19/3109	Parliament (Meetings of the North Atlantic Assembly) (Part 1)	Begins: 1980 Jul 24	Ends: 1990 Jul 26	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20	Any docs withheld? 10	Classification: Confidential	Pages: 318
PREM19/3110	Parliament (Parliamentary scrutiny of European Community legislation: UK representation in European Community institutions; House of Commons links with the European Community)	Begins: 1980 May 7	Ends: 1990 Oct 7	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 165
PREM19/3111	Parliament (Queen's Speeches on prorogation and opening of Parliament; televising the proceedings of the House of Commons) (Part 9)	Begins: 1988 Dec 6	Ends: 1990 Jul 31	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30	Any docs withheld? 10	Classification: Secret	Pages: 287
PREM19/3112	Police (Police policy) (Part 3)	Begins: 1989 Jan 23	Ends: 1990 Jun 29	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20		Classification: Secret	Pages: 162
PREM19/3113	Posts and Telecommunications (Future of the Post Office: sale of Girobank; Telecommunications Duopoly Review) (Part 12)	Begins: 1989 Jan 23	Ends: 1990 Jun 20	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 289
PREM19/3114	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's speech at Conrad Black dinner, 21 June 1988, and meeting with Conrad Black and the Board of Hollinger, 6 September 1989)	Begins: 1988 Jun 21	Ends: 1990 Apr 2	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30	Any docs withheld? 1	Classification: Unclassified	Pages: 34
PREM19/3115	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with Fred Naylor, Honorary Secretary of Parental Alliance for Choice in Education (PACE), 18 June 1990)	Begins: 1990 Mar 23	Ends: 1991 Jul 10	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20	Any docs withheld? 1	Classification: Confidential	Pages: 42
PREM19/3116	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with Gerald Carroll, Chairman of the Carroll Group, 22 January 1990)	Begins: 1989 Nov 8	Ends: 1990 Oct 1	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20	Any docs withheld? 1	Classification: Restricted	Pages: 92
PREM19/3117	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meetings with Hartley Booth and Lew Wasserman: British Urban Development Ltd; proposed MCA theme park and film studio project at Rainham, Essex)	Begins: 1989 May 15	Ends: 1990 May 31	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 381
PREM19/3119	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with John Broome, 7 February 1990: proposed development of Battersea Power Station)	Begins: 1990 Feb 2	Ends: 1990 Feb 7	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 18
PREM19/3120	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meetings with Jan Steyn, head of the Urban Foundation in South Africa)	Begins: 1988 May 13	Ends: 1990 May 2	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 99
PREM19/3121	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with Lady Porter, 13 September 1990: proposal for a Minister for London)	Begins: 1990 Sep 13	Ends: 1990 Nov 18	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 60
PREM19/3124	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with Margaret Harrison, Director of Home-Start, 13 July 1990)	Begins: 1990 Jul 6	Ends: 1990 Sep 17	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 72
PREM19/3125	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with Members of the Conservative Backbench Trade and Industry Committee, 16 January 1990)	Begins: 1990 Jan 16	Ends: 1990 Jan 16	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20		Classification: Restricted	Pages: 4

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