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 3376 - 3400 of 3726

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/3660 Downing Street (Physical security aspects of Downing Street) (Part 7) Begins: 1988 Apr 5 Ends: 1992 Jul 2 Date of release: Temporarily Retained by Department
PREM19/3661 Downing Street (Replacement of telephone switchboard: modernisation of telecommunications; telephone systems at No. 10) (Part 2) Begins: 1988 Apr 5 Ends: 1992 Jul 2 Date of release: Temporarily Retained by Department
PREM19/3662 Drugs (Drugs) (Part 6) Begins: 1990 May 9 Ends: 1992 Oct 5 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Any docs withheld? 2 Classification: Secret Pages: 150
PREM19/3665 Economic Policy (European Investment Bank (EIB): appointments of UK Vice-President and Director of Research; visit by the Chairman, November 1992) Begins: 1986 Jun 10 Ends: 1992 Nov 27 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Confidential Pages: 21
PREM19/3669 Economic Policy (Competition policy: restrictive trade practices policy; abuse of market power)​​​​​​ (Part 2) Begins: 1986 Mar 3 Ends: 1992 Jan 24 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Secret Pages: 583
PREM19/3670 Economic Policy (Consultations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF): meetings with the IMF and World Bank) (Part 3) Begins: 1986 Oct 3 Ends: 1992 Mar 12 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Secret Pages: 289
PREM19/3674 Economic Policy (Exchange rate: exchange control policy) (Part 4) Begins: 1989 Jun 13 Ends: 1992 Jan 8 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Secret Pages: 67
PREM19/3676 Economic Policy (National Savings) Begins: 1980 Sep 17 Ends: 1992 Aug 4 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Confidential Pages: 78
PREM19/3677 Economic Policy (Reform of personal taxation; taxation of individuals, including overseas voters and families: launch of Tax-Exempt Special Savings Account (TESSA) schemes) (Part 5) Begins: 1990 May 22 Ends: 1992 Jul 20 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Confidential Pages: 22
PREM19/3678 Economic Policy (Meetings of National Economic Development Council (NEDC): abolition of NEDC and National Economic Development Office (NEDO)) (Part 14) Begins: 1986 Apr 14 Ends: 1992 Jun 23 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Secret Pages: 243
PREM19/3689 Economic Policy (Public service redundancy terms) Begins: 1981 May 1 Ends: 1992 Dec 4 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Confidential Pages: 93
PREM19/3690 Economic Policy (Remuneration of retail pharmacists: proposal for a review body) Begins: 1980 Feb 22 Ends: 1992 Nov 4 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Confidential Pages: 81
PREM19/3691 Economic Policy (Reports of the Pay Review Bodies: review of the Office of Manpower Economics (OME)) (Part 11) Begins: 1990 Feb 1 Ends: 1992 Jan 24 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Secret Pages: 370
PREM19/3696 Education (Pay of university teachers and academic staff) Begins: 1980 Apr 25 Ends: 1992 Jul 13 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Secret Pages: 176
PREM19/3697 Egypt (Anglo-Egyptian relations: internal situation) (Part 2) Begins: 1986 Jul 21 Ends: 1992 Oct 25 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Any docs withheld? 2 Classification: Secret Pages: 250
PREM19/3699 Egypt (Visits to the UK by President Mubarak and the Egyptian Foreign Minister) (Part 2) Begins: 1986 Jul 14 Ends: 1992 Dec 31 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Any docs withheld? 9 Classification: Confidential Pages: 292
PREM19/3704 Energy (Energy policy: nuclear power; nuclear safety in Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)) (Part 14) Begins: 1990 Sep 3 Ends: 1992 Apr 30 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Confidential Pages: 449
PREM19/3705 Energy (British Petroleum (BP): redemption of the Government's special share in Britoil) (Part 7) Begins: 1989 Jan 2 Ends: 1992 Feb 11 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 55
PREM19/3706 Energy (Future offshore petroleum licensing: 9th to 14th licensing rounds; oil taxation) (Part 2) Begins: 1984 Jan 11 Ends: 1992 Feb 28 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Secret Pages: 341
PREM19/3713 European Policy (Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)) (Part 20) Begins: 1990 Jul 18 Ends: 1992 Dec 31 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Any docs withheld? 5 Classification: Confidential Pages: 378
PREM19/3736 European Policy (European Council meeting in Edinburgh, 11-12 December 1992) (Part 41) Begins: 1990 May 21 Ends: 1992 Apr 28 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Any docs withheld? 5 Classification: Confidential Pages: 345
PREM19/3741 European Policy (European Monetary System (EMS): economic and monetary union) (Part 5) [filed out of sequence] Begins: 1989 Sep 1 Ends: 1990 Nov 30 Date of release: 2018 Jul 24 Classification: Secret Pages: 434
PREM19/3743 European Policy (Harmonisation of excise duties on alcohol: VAT rates in the EEC) Begins: 1980 Oct 21 Ends: 1992 Aug 14 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Confidential Pages: 88
PREM19/3745 European Policy (Membership of the UK delegation to the Council of Europe and Western European Union) (Part 1) Begins: 1981 Apr 14 Ends: 1992 Nov 24 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Confidential Pages: 274
PREM19/3747 European Policy (Prime Minister's meeting with European Community Committee of Cancer Experts, 25 May 1989) Begins: 1989 Feb 1 Ends: 1992 Oct 20 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 222
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