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 3226 - 3250 of 3726

Per page:

File name	File title	Begins	Ends	Release date	Any docs withheld?	Classification	Pages
PREM19/3436	Mauritius (UK/Mauritius relations) (Part 1)	Begins: 1982 Jun 1	Ends: 1991 Oct 10	Date of release: Temporarily Retained by Department
PREM19/3437	Manpower (Special employment measures: measures to tackle rising unemployment; Employment Training and special needs; youth training) (Part 25)	Begins: 1990 Nov 1	Ends: 1991 Sep 30	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20		Classification: Secret	Pages: 321
PREM19/3438	Memoirs (Policy on Ministerial memoirs: Sir Alan Walters' book 'Sterling in Danger'; 'Downing Street Cook - Recipes from the Thatcher Years') (Part 2)	Begins: 1988 Sep 16	Ends: 1991 Feb 6	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20	Any docs withheld? 2	Classification: Secret	Pages: 491
PREM19/3439	Middle East (Situation in the Middle East: Iraqi invasion of Kuwait) (Part 34)	Begins: 1990 Nov 18	Ends: 1990 Dec 6	Date of release: 2018 Jul 24	Any docs withheld? 8	Classification: Top Secret - Cab One	Pages: 298
PREM19/3440	Middle East (Situation in the Middle East: Iraqi invasion of Kuwait) (Part 35)	Begins: 1990 Dec 7	Ends: 1990 Dec 31	Date of release: 2018 Jul 24	Any docs withheld? 19	Classification: Top Secret	Pages: 432
PREM19/3441	Middle East (Situation in the Middle East: Iraqi invasion of Kuwait) (Part 36)	Begins: 1991 Jan 1	Ends: 1991 Jan 9	Date of release: 2018 Jul 24	Any docs withheld? 14	Classification: Top Secret - Cab One	Pages: 304
PREM19/3456	Middle East (Conclusions of the Ad Hoc Group on the Gulf (AHGG))	Begins: 1990 Nov 5	Ends: 1991 Feb 14	Date of release: 2018 Jul 24	Any docs withheld? 4	Classification: Secret	Pages: 243
PREM19/3459	National Health (Medical ethics (bioethics): DNA profiling; Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill) (Part 3)	Begins: 1988 Mar 12	Ends: 1991 Mar 28	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 272
PREM19/3460	National Health (Expenditure and efficiency in the National Health Service (NHS): implementation of NHS reforms) (Part 25)	Begins: 1990 Jun 1	Ends: 1990 Dec 29	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20		Classification: Secret	Pages: 353
PREM19/3464	National Health (Nurses' pay: nurses clinical regrading exercise) (Part 4)	Begins: 1988 Aug 11	Ends: 1990 Dec 29	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20		Classification: Secret	Pages: 334
PREM19/3465	Nationalised Industries (Policy towards the nationalised industries: financial control) (Part 11)	Begins: 1986 Jun 2	Ends: 1991 Feb 8	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20		Classification: Secret	Pages: 404
PREM19/3466	NATO (NATO Summits) (Part 5)	Begins: 1990 Jun 1	Ends: 1991 Oct 30	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20	Any docs withheld? 2	Classification: Secret	Pages: 215
PREM19/3467	Netherlands (Internal situation: UK/Dutch relations) (Part 1)	Begins: 1980 Sep 16	Ends: 1991 Nov 7	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20	Any docs withheld? 4	Classification: Confidential	Pages: 319
PREM19/3468	Netherlands (Prime Minister's visits to the Netherlands, September 1983 and September 1991) (Part 1)	Begins: 1983 Sep 1	Ends: 1991 Sep 19	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20		Classification: Secret	Pages: 319
PREM19/3470	New Zealand (Calls on the Prime Minister by the New Zealand High Commissioners)	Begins: 1979 Jul 3	Ends: 1991 Jun 3	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20		Classification: Secret	Pages: 46
PREM19/3471	Nigeria (Visits of Nigerian Foreign Ministers)	Begins: 1980 May 16	Ends: 1991 Apr 15	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20	Any docs withheld? 2	Classification: Confidential	Pages: 87
PREM19/3472	Parliament (Availability of Hansard: arrangements for the publication of Written Answers)	Begins: 1980 Mar 3	Ends: 1991 Oct 25	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20		Classification: Unclassified	Pages: 87
PREM19/3473	Parliament (House of Commons procedure: Select Committees) (Part 11)	Begins: 1990 Jun 5	Ends: 1991 Jul 15	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20	Any docs withheld? 1	Classification: Confidential	Pages: 287
PREM19/3474	Parliament (Legislative programme) (Part 20)	Begins: 1990 Apr 2	Ends: 1991 Jan 31	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20		Classification: Secret	Pages: 290
PREM19/3477	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons) (Part 2)	Begins: 1986 Jun 25	Ends: 1991 May 21	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20		Classification: Secret	Pages: 290
PREM19/3478	Prime Minister (MPs' pay and pensions) (Part 7)	Begins: 1987 Dec 1	Ends: 1991 Dec 20	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 357
PREM19/3479	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meetings with the National Pensioners Convention) (Part 2)	Begins: 1987 Jan 8	Ends: 1991 Feb 28	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20		Classification: Unclassified	Pages: 394
PREM19/3480	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meetings and correspondence with Jack Peel) (Part 2)	Begins: 1989 Oct 1	Ends: 1991 Mar 27	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20		Classification: Unclassified	Pages: 23
PREM19/3481	Prime Minister (Messages of congratulations from Heads of Government to John Major MP upon his appointment as Prime Minister)	Begins: 1990 Nov 27	Ends: 1991 Feb 21	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20		Classification: Restricted	Pages: 280
PREM19/3482	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with Mother Teresa, 13 April 1988)	Begins: 1988 Apr 1	Ends: 1991 May 23	Date of release: 2017 Jul 20		Classification: Restricted	Pages: 45

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