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 1376 - 1400 of 3726

Per page:

File name	File title	Begins	Ends	Release date	Any docs withheld?	Classification	Pages
PREM19/1377	Security (Security risks in certain Civil Service grades)	Begins: 1984 Oct 15	Ends: 1984 Nov 5	Date of release: 2014 Jan 3	Any docs withheld? 1	Classification: Confidential	Pages: 14
PREM19/1378	Security (Leakage of NATO Alliance documents to Soviet Union by official in Belgian Foreign Ministry)	Begins: 1984 Aug 3	Ends: 1984 Aug 6	Date of release: 2014 Jan 3		Classification: Secret	Pages: 7
PREM19/1379	Security (Article in ‘The Times’ by Edward Rowlands MP on the Labour Government and the Falkland Islands; disclosure of intelligence information and use of quotations from Cabinet Committee papers)	Begins: 1983 Jan 17	Ends: 1984 May 7	Date of release: 2014 Jan 3		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 14
PREM19/1380	Security (Forged recording of telephone conversation between Prime Minister and President Reagan during Falklands campaign)	Begins: 1983 May 25	Ends: 1984 Apr 6	Date of release: 2014 Jan 3	Any docs withheld? 2	Classification: Secret	Pages: 44
PREM19/1381	Security (Information leaked by ‘The Guardian’ about siting of cruise nuclear missiles at Greenham Common; Sarah Tisdall not referred to Security Commission)	Begins: 1983 Oct 24	Ends: 1984 Apr 9	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28	Any docs withheld? 2	Classification: Confidential	Pages: 93
PREM19/1382	Security (Oleg Bitov, Soviet defector; Bitov's return to Moscow)	Begins: 1983 Oct 21	Ends: 1984 Sep 17	Date of release: 2014 Jan 3	Any docs withheld? 2	Classification: Top Secret	Pages: 19
PREM19/1383	Security (Access to classified documents by members of Conservative Research Department; case of Tony Hutt, adviser to Secretary of State for the Environment)	Begins: 1983 Dec 22	Ends: 1984 Jan 12	Date of release: 2014 Jan 3		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 10
PREM19/1384	Security (South African diplomat accused of spying for Russia)	Begins: 1983 Jan 19	Ends: 1984 Jan 23	Date of release: 2014 Jan 3	Any docs withheld? 2	Classification: Top Secret	Pages: 36
PREM19/1385	Security (Case of Rhona Ritchie, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) official, convicted of passing classified documents to Egyptian diplomat in Tel Aviv; Security Commission investigation)	Begins: 1982 Mar 17	Ends: 1983 Jul 26	Date of release: 2014 Jan 3	Any docs withheld? 7	Classification: Secret	Pages: 124
PREM19/1386	Security (Case of Intelligence Corps Lance Corporal Philip Leslie Aldridge convicted of passing secret information to Soviet Union; Security Commission investigation)	Begins: 1982 Nov 26	Ends: 1984 Mar 27	Date of release: 2014 Jan 3	Any docs withheld? 2	Classification: Top Secret	Pages: 82
PREM19/1387	Security (Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ): changes in funding, status and staffing) (Part 1)	Begins: 1981 Mar 10	Ends: 1984 Feb 9	Date of release: Retained		Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/1388	Security (Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ): changes in funding, status and staffing) (Part 2)	Begins: 1984 Feb 6	Ends: 1984 Feb 29	Date of release: Retained		Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/1389	Security (Distribution of intelligence reports and assessments)	Begins: 1979 May 14	Ends: 1984 Nov 14	Date of release: Retained		Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/1390	Social services (Genetic Manipulation Advisory Group (GMAG))	Begins: 1980 Dec 31	Ends: 1984 Jan 11	Date of release: 2014 Jan 3		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 66
PREM19/1391	South Africa (Internal situation; relations with UK) (Part 3)	Begins: 1982 Dec 9	Ends: 1984 Sep 30	Date of release: 2014 Jan 3	Any docs withheld? 18	Classification: Top Secret	Pages: 379
PREM19/1392	South Africa (Visit to UK by Prime Minister, P.W. Botha, June 1984; meeting with Prime Minister)	Begins: 1984 Apr 13	Ends: 1984 Jul 19	Date of release: 2014 Jan 3	Any docs withheld? 1	Classification: Secret	Pages: 433
PREM19/1393	Soviet Union (UK/Soviet relations) (Part 2)	Begins: 1982 Apr 21	Ends: 1984 May 14	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28	Any docs withheld? 7	Classification: Top Secret	Pages: 275
PREM19/1394	Soviet Union (UK/Soviet relations; visit to UK by Mikhail Gorbachev, member of Politburo, December 1984; meeting with Prime Minister) (Part 3)	Begins: 1984 Jun 4	Ends: 1984 Dec 22	Date of release: 2014 Jan 3	Any docs withheld? 3	Classification: Top Secret	Pages: 411
PREM19/1395	Sri Lanka (Internal situation; UK/Sri Lankan relations; aid to Sri Lanka) (Part 1)	Begins: 1979 May 21	Ends: 1984 Oct 22	Date of release: 2014 Jan 3		Classification: Secret	Pages: 354
PREM19/1396	Tonga (Visits to UK by King and Queen of Tonga, December 1979 and October 1983)	Begins: 1979 Nov 20	Ends: 1984 Mar 5	Date of release: 2014 Jan 3		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 84
PREM19/1397	Trade (Britain’s international trade policies; problems with Spain and Japan; rolling back protectionism; export promotion) (Part 3)	Begins: 1982 Nov 4	Ends: 1984 May 31	Date of release: 2014 Jan 3		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 277
PREM19/1398	Transport (Merger of British Rail Hovercraft and Hoverlloyd (hovercraft operators) to form Hoverspeed in 1981; financial difficulties of Hoverspeed)	Begins: 1981 Jun 16	Ends: 1984 Jan 30	Date of release: 2014 Jan 3		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 34
PREM19/1399	Transport (Inquiry into Archway Road Scheme (North London); withdrawal of nominated inspector Sir Michael Giddings following harassment of him and his family)	Begins: 1984 Feb 27	Ends: 1984 Nov 19	Date of release: 2014 Jan 3		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 43
PREM19/1400	Transport (British Rail: review of main line electrification; Hastings-Tonbridge rail service)	Begins: 1980 Nov 13	Ends: 1984 Jul 30	Date of release: 2014 Jan 3		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 274
PREM19/1401	United Nations (Dinner for members of United Nations Administrative Committee on Coordination, April 1984)	Begins: 1983 Oct 17	Ends: 1984 May 10	Date of release: 2014 Jan 3		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 58

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