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 1601 - 1625 of 3726

Per page:

File name	File title	Begins	Ends	Release date	Any docs withheld?	Classification	Pages
PREM19/1602	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with Field Marshal Sir Edwin Bramall, retiring Chief of the Defence Staff)	Begins: 1982 Sep 7	Ends: 1985 Nov 2	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Unclassified	Pages: 9
PREM19/1603	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with Trevor Skeet MP and Sir Gerard Vaughan MP of Parliamentary and Scientific Committee, to discuss CERN (European Organisation for Nuclear Research): UK participation in high energy particle physics)	Begins: 1985 Jun 13	Ends: 1985 Jul 17	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Unclassified	Pages: 30
PREM19/1604	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with Sir Peter Blaker MP and Norman Miscampbell MP, January 1985: loss by Blackpool of Assisted Area Status)	Begins: 1984 Nov 28	Ends: 1985 Jan 15	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 13
PREM19/1605	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meetings with Gordon Brown MP to discuss factory closures in his Dunfermline East constituency and general regional policy)	Begins: 1983 Sep 11	Ends: 1985 Jan 11	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Unclassified	Pages: 39
PREM19/1606	Prime Minister (Radio profile of the Prime Minister by Hugo Young and Anne Sloman of BBC: discouragement of Civil Service participation)	Begins: 1985 Jan 23	Ends: 1985 Jan 31	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30
PREM19/1607	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with Tony Christopher of the Inland Revenue Staff Federation)	Begins: 1984 Dec 19	Ends: 1985 Jan 10	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30
PREM19/1608	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with Sir Douglas Hague on the future of Research Councils)	Begins: 1984 Dec 20	Ends: 1985 Feb 6	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30
PREM19/1609	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meetings with Sean Hughes MP on the closure of Huntley and Palmer biscuit factory in Knowsley and Plessey Telecommunications plant in Huyton)	Begins: 1983 Nov 10	Ends: 1985 Jul 25	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30
PREM19/1610	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with Frank Field MP on the proposed closure of Manchester Steel's Bidston works)	Begins: 1985 May 9	Ends: 1985 Jun 18	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30
PREM19/1611	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with James Hill MP to discuss Southampton's Docks and Freeport)	Begins: 1985 May 16	Ends: 1985 Oct 14	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Unclassified	Pages: 40
PREM19/1612	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meetings with Robert Kilroy-Silk MP about proposed redundancies in Knowsley area)	Begins: 1984 Jan 24	Ends: 1985 Feb 11	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 55
PREM19/1613	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with Conservative Friends of Israel)	Begins: 1985 Jun 19	Ends: 1985 Oct 9	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 29
PREM19/1614	Regional Policy (Inner city policy: Urban Development Corporations: Government help for Liverpool and Merseyside) (Part 4)	Begins: 1983 Sep 14	Ends: 1984 Apr 26	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 340
PREM19/1615	Regional Policy (Inner city policy: Urban Programme; illegal rate setting by Liverpool City Council; appointment of commissioners; reorganisation of schools) (Part 5)	Begins: 1984 Apr 27	Ends: 1985 Jan 28	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Secret	Pages: 334
PREM19/1616	Regional Policy (Inner city policy: Liverpool City Council finances; Liverpool Garden Festival site; Birmingham Convention Centre; London Docklands Development Corporation) (Part 6)	Begins: 1985 Feb 4	Ends: 1985 Jul 31	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 193
PREM19/1617	Royal Family (Queen's visit to army units in Germany, May 1984: possible threat from Irish terrorism)	Begins: 1984 May 16	Ends: 1984 May 21	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30	Any docs withheld? 3	Classification: Secret	Pages: 5
PREM19/1618	Royal Family (Broadlands Archives: transfer to Southampton University of papers of Lord Mountbatten)	Begins: 1985 Jul 8	Ends: 1985 Sep 24	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30		Classification: Unclassified	Pages: 18
PREM19/1619	Science and Technology (Annual Review of Government-funded Research and Development: maintaining the strength of the science base) (Part 2)	Begins: 1984 Aug 2	Ends: 1985 Mar 29	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Secret	Pages: 359
PREM19/1620	Security (Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ): changes in funding, status and staffing; unionisation) (Part 3)	Begins: 1984 Mar 2	Ends: 1985 Apr 26	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30
PREM19/1621	Security (Publication of 'British Intelligence and Covert Action' by Jonathan Bloch and Patrick Fitzgerald: security issues; Bloch's UK refugee residency status; protection of intelligence identities)	Begins: 1983 Mar 9	Ends: 1985 Oct 28	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30
PREM19/1622	Security (Judgement by European Court of Human Rights on Malone case: proposed legislation on interception of communications)	Begins: 1980 Sep 29	Ends: 1984 Jul 23	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30
PREM19/1623	Security (Security of Buckingham Palace grounds: incident on 9 July 1982; review of law of trespass)	Begins: 1981 Aug 20	Ends: 1985 May 9	Date of release: 2018 Jul 24	Any docs withheld? 16	Classification: Secret	Pages: 157
PREM19/1624	Security (Allegations made to Kenneth Warren MP by John Kane about security standards at Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) establishments)	Begins: 1979 Jun 14	Ends: 1984 Mar 26	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30
PREM19/1625	Security (Policy on interception: legislation) (Part 4)	Begins: 1975 Oct 31	Ends: 1985 Jan 31	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30
PREM19/1627	Security (Sinking of Argentine warship General Belgrano in 1982: report by House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee) (Part 2)	Begins: 1985 Mar 1	Ends: 1985 Oct 21	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30	Any docs withheld? 2	Classification: Top Secret	Pages: 42

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