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 1626 - 1650 of 3726

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/1628 Security (Contingency arrangements for dealing with terrorist incidents) Begins: 1979 Jun 8 Ends: 1985 Nov 21 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 25
PREM19/1629 Security (Possible penetration of Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Confidential communications) Begins: 1982 Mar 4 Ends: 1985 Dec 6 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30
PREM19/1630 Security (Hijacking of an Air Tanzania Boeing 737 by Tanzanian dissidents: surrender at Stansted Airport, 28 February 1982) Begins: 1982 Feb 28 Ends: 1985 Nov 19 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 2 Classification: Secret Pages: 38
PREM19/1631 Security (Security vetting: guidelines for Private Office posts) Begins: 1983 Jun 23 Ends: 1985 Jan 21 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30
PREM19/1632 Security (Bomb explosion at the Grand Hotel, Brighton, during the Conservative Party Conference, 12 October 1984) Begins: 1984 Oct 12 Ends: 1985 Jun 24 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 10 Classification: Secret Pages: 97
PREM19/1633 Security (Soviet funding of National Union of Mineworkers (NUM): information from Sir Bernard Braine MP) Begins: 1984 Oct 10 Ends: 1985 Mar 6 Date of release: Retained under Sec 3:4
PREM19/1634 Security (Security Commission: review of security procedures; appointments; cases referred; 'Three Advisers' on appeals against positive vetting clearance refusals - terms of reference and procedures) Begins: 1981 Apr 1 Ends: 1985 Sep 5 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 253
PREM19/1635 Security (Prime Minister's visit to Century House (SIS headquarters), September 1984) Begins: 1984 Sep 5 Ends: 1984 Oct 8 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Top Secret Pages: 10
PREM19/1636 Security (Leak to press on expulsion of Soviet Embassy officials in April 1985) Begins: 1985 Apr 18 Ends: 1985 Jun 17 Date of release: Retained under Sec 3:4
PREM19/1637 Social Services (Unemployment benefit: benefit limit; Family Income Supplement; taxation of social security benefits, supplementary benefits and strikers' benefits) (Part 4) Begins: 1980 Jun 18 Ends: 1984 Nov 26 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 201
PREM19/1638 Social Services (Reform of social security: pensions, housing benefit and supplementary benefit; child support) (Part 1) Begins: 1984 Dec 28 Ends: 1985 Mar 29 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 232
PREM19/1639 Social Services (Reform of social security: pensions, housing benefit and supplementary benefit; child support) (Part 2) Begins: 1985 Apr 4 Ends: 1985 May 31 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 251
PREM19/1640 Social Services (Reform of social security: pensions, housing benefit and supplementary benefit; child support) (Part 3) Begins: 1985 Jun 3 Ends: 1985 Nov 29 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 347
PREM19/1641 South Africa (Internal situation: relations with UK) (Part 4) Begins: 1984 Oct 1 Ends: 1985 Jun 29 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 358
PREM19/1642 South Africa (Internal situation: relations with UK) (Part 5) Begins: 1985 Jul 1 Ends: 1985 Aug 31 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 2 Classification: Confidential Pages: 358
PREM19/1643 South Africa (Internal situation: relations with UK) (Part 6) Begins: 1985 Sep 2 Ends: 1985 Sep 30 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 5 Classification: Secret Pages: 311
PREM19/1644 South Africa (Internal situation: relations with UK) (Part 7) Begins: 1985 Oct 1 Ends: 1985 Oct 31 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 351
PREM19/1645 Soviet Union (Economic relations: control on strategic exports; United States sanctions; sale of Rolls-Royce gas turbines; Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (COCOM) list review) (Part 2) Begins: 1982 Nov 12 Ends: 1985 Oct 24 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Secret and Personal Pages: 286
PREM19/1646 Soviet Union (Prime Minister's visits to Moscow for the funerals of Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko in February 1984 and March 1985 respectively) Begins: 1984 Feb 13 Ends: 1985 Mar 15 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 295
PREM19/1647 Soviet Union (UK/Soviet relations) (Part 4) Begins: 1985 Jan 3 Ends: 1985 Oct 25 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 26 Classification: Top Secret Pages: 341
PREM19/1648 Trade (Export promotion: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT); export credits; contract for second Bosphorus bridge) (Part 4) Begins: 1984 Jun 1 Ends: 1985 Jun 27 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 398
PREM19/1649 Transport (Channel Fixed Link (Channel Tunnel): economic considerations; discussions with the French) (Part 2) Begins: 1982 Feb 16 Ends: 1985 Mar 29 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 280
PREM19/1650 Transport (Channel Fixed Link (Channel Tunnel): economic considerations; discussions with the French) (Part 3) Begins: 1985 Apr 1 Ends: 1985 Dec 24 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 309
PREM19/1651 Transport (London Underground dispute, June 1979: reactivation of Civil Contingencies Unit; arbitration; London Transport pay; threatened London Underground and bus strikes) Begins: 1979 May 31 Ends: 1985 May 20 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 122
PREM19/1652 USA (Visit to UK by Elizabeth Dole, US Secretary of Transportation: call on Prime Minister, May 1) Begins: 1983 Aug 29 Ends: 1985 May 17 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 19
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