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 3326 - 3350 of 3726

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/3594 Economic Policy (Indebtedness of various countries: Treasury reports on international debt) (Part 8) Begins: 1989 Jul 7 Ends: 1991 Oct 31 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Classification: Confidential Pages: 560
PREM19/3595 Economic Policy (Public sector pay policy: Treasury monitoring reports) (Part 14) Begins: 1987 Sep 22 Ends: 1991 May 30 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 311
PREM19/3596 Education (Standards in higher education: Lindop Report on academic validation in public sector higher education; funding of higher education) Begins: 1984 Mar 29 Ends: 1991 Oct 28 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Classification: Confidential Pages: 244
PREM19/3597 Egypt (Prime Minister's meetings with the Egyptian Ambassador) Begins: 1980 Aug 2 Ends: 1991 Sep 17 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Confidential Pages: 46
PREM19/3598 Energy (Energy conservation: home insulation scheme: energy efficiency) (Part 3) Begins: 1986 Nov 5 Ends: 1991 Mar 27 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Pages: 242
PREM19/3599 Environmental Affairs (Car exhaust emission standards) Begins: 1989 Mar 21 Ends: 1991 Dec 5 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Classification: Confidential Pages: 87
PREM19/3600 Environmental Affairs (Policy on waste disposal and sewage) Begins: 1989 Jun 30 Ends: 1991 Apr 3 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Classification: Confidential Pages: 24
PREM19/3601 Foreign Policy​​​​​​​ (Summary notes on Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) Assessments) (Part 3) Begins: 1988 Jan 8 Ends: 1989 Jul 27 Date of release: Retained Under Sec 3.4
PREM19/3602 Aerospace (European Airbus: European Transonic Windtunnel (ETW)) (Part 3) Begins: 1987 Dec 3 Ends: 1992 Sep 3 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Any docs withheld? 3 Classification: Secret Pages: 332
PREM19/3604 Aerospace (Space policy) (Part 4) Begins: 1983 Mar 3 Ends: 1992 Nov 9 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Secret - UK Eyes A Pages: 212
PREM19/3605 Agriculture (Hill Livestock Compensatory Allowances (HLCAs)) Begins: 1979 Nov 20 Ends: 1992 Dec 10 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Confidential Pages: 51
PREM19/3606 Agriculture (Agricultural and food research) (Part 2) Begins: 1990 Jun 4 Ends: 1992 Jan 20 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 46
PREM19/3607 Agriculture (Retail and wholesale milk prices: milk marketing arrangements) (Part 3) Begins: 1984 Jul 30 Ends: 1992 Jul 27 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Confidential Pages: 259
PREM19/3608 Agriculture (Review of the meat inspection system: meat hygiene enforcement) Begins: 1983 Nov 30 Ends: 1992 Mar 5 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 96
PREM19/3609 Angola (Internal situation: UK/Angola relations)​​​​​​​ (Part 3) Begins: 1988 Sep 1 Ends: 1992 Dec 31 Date of release: Temporarily Retained by Department
PREM19/3610 Arts and Amenities (Policy towards the arts: private sponsorship of the arts) (Part 4) Begins: 1990 May 1 Ends: 1992 Dec 22 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 259
PREM19/3611 Arts and Amenities (Charitable trust for works of art in the Palace of Westminster) Begins: 1990 Jun 28 Ends: 1991 Mar 27 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 12
PREM19/3612 Austria (Visits to the UK by Chancellor Kreisky and his successor Chancellor Vranitsky) Begins: 1980 Jun 27 Ends: 1992 Oct 12 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Confidential Pages: 100
PREM19/3613 Bahrain (Visit to the UK by the Prime Minister of Bahrain, Shaikh Khalifa, September 1980) Begins: 1980 May 2 Ends: 1992 Aug 20 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 140
PREM19/3614 Barbados (Internal situation: UK/Barbados relations) Begins: 1981 Jun 24 Ends: 1992 Mar 2 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Secret Pages: 254
PREM19/3615 Belgium (Visits to the UK by Belgian Prime Ministers, Wilfried Martens and Jean-Luc Dehaene) Begins: 1979 Jun 29 Ends: 1992 Jun 22 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 345
PREM19/3618 Broadcasting (Broadcasting policy: television licence fees; future of the BBC) (Part 12) Begins: 1990 Jul 2 Ends: 1992 Aug 28 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Confidential Pages: 463
PREM19/3623 Canada (Prime Minister's visits to Canada, 25-28 Sep 1983 and 17-18 Dcr 1992) Begins: 1983 Aug 31 Ends: 1992 Dec 17 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 390
PREM19/3624 Canada (Calls on the Prime Minister by the Premiers of Canadian Provinces) Begins: 1979 Aug 6 Ends: 1992 Feb 7 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Secret Pages: 90
PREM19/3625 China (Calls on the Prime Minister by the Chinese Ambassador) Begins: 1979 May 30 Ends: 1992 Mar 31 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Any docs withheld? 3 Classification: Secret Pages: 161
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