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 1726 - 1750 of 3726

Per page:

File name	File title	Begins	Ends	Release date	Any docs withheld?	Classification	Pages
PREM19/1728	Education (Student loans: review of financial support for students) (Part 1)	Begins: 1981 Mar 23	Ends: 1986 May 19	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 262
PREM19/1729	Education (Teachers’ pay) (Part 5)	Begins: 1985 Aug 1	Ends: 1985 Dec 23	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Secret	Pages: 322
PREM19/1730	Education (Teachers' pay) (Part 6)	Begins: 1986 Jan 6	Ends: 1986 Mar 26	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 332
PREM19/1731	Education (Teachers' pay) (Part 7)	Begins: 1986 Apr 15	Ends: 1986 Oct 2	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Secret	Pages: 248
PREM19/1732	Education (Teachers' pay) (Part 8)	Begins: 1986 Oct 10	Ends: 1986 Oct 31	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Secret	Pages: 235
PREM19/1733	Egypt (Anglo-Egyptian relations: defence sales to Egypt; internal situation) (Part 1)	Begins: 1980 Nov 4	Ends: 1986 Jun 27	Date of release: 2018 Jul 24	Any docs withheld? 9	Classification: Secret	Pages: 357
PREM19/1734	Egypt (Visits to the UK by Prime Ministers, Dr Mustafa Khalil and Dr Ali Loutfi: meetings with the Prime Minister)	Begins: 1979 Oct 22	Ends: 1986 Sep 16	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 55
PREM19/1735	Elections (Election procedure)	Begins: 1983 Feb 2	Ends: 1986 Oct 21	Date of release: 2018 Jul 18
PREM19/1736	Energy (Conservation and efficiency: Energy Efficiency Office; report of Select Committee on Energy; energy efficiency grants; energy saving in government offices) (Part 2)	Begins: 1980 Jul 3	Ends: 1986 Oct 31	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 199
PREM19/1737	Energy (Oil prices: prospects for world oil market; proposed Petroleum Bill; North Sea oil prices; heavy fuel oil prices; oil prices in the longer term) (Part 2)	Begins: 1983 Oct 7	Ends: 1986 Jan 31	Date of release: 2014 Dec 31	Any docs withheld? 4	Classification: Secret and Personal	Pages: 336
PREM19/1738	Energy (Energy policy: nuclear power policy; proposed fast reactor plant at Dounreay; Sizewell Inquiry; fast reactor policy; structure of nuclear industry; international co-operation on fusion; safety in civil nuclear installations and nuclear electricity policy after Chernobyl) (Part 9)	Begins: 1984 Dec 6	Ends: 1986 May 31	Date of release: Retained under Section 3.4
PREM19/1739	Energy (Prime Minister's meeting with Douglas Hogg MP about disposal of nuclear waste)	Begins: 1986 Mar 4	Ends: 1986 Apr 7	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 43
PREM19/1740	Energy (Activities and role of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (AEA))	Begins: 1984 Mar 2	Ends: 1986 Mar 11	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Secret	Pages: 229
PREM19/1741	Environemntal Affairs (Report on leak at Windscale: policy towards Sellafield; environmental pollution; report on incidence of cancer in west Cumbria; report of the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment) (Part 1)	Begins: 1980 Jul 28	Ends: 1986 Jul 22	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 266
PREM19/1742	Environmental Affairs (Environmental policy: vehicle emissions; acid rain; pollution control; environmental protection) (Part 4)	Begins: 1985 Jun 18	Ends: 1986 Jul 31	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Secret	Pages: 283
PREM19/1743	Environmental Affairs (The refurbishment of Trafalgar Square)	Begins: 1986 Jun 24	Ends: 1986 Jun 30	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Unclassified	Pages: 4
PREM19/1744	Environmental Affairs (World Conservation Strategy: 'Conservation and Development - the British Approach')	Begins: 1980 Jun 25	Ends: 1986 May 21	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 137
PREM19/1745	European Policy (European Council meeting, The Hague, June 1986) (Part 25)	Begins: 1985 Apr 23	Ends: 1986 Jul 21	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Secret	Pages: 228
PREM19/1746	European Policy (Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)) (Part 13)	Begins: 1985 Jan 7	Ends: 1986 Mar 19	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 440
PREM19/1747	European policy (Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)) (Part 14)	Begins: 1986 Apr 17	Ends: 1986 Nov 28	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Secret	Pages: 435
PREM19/1748	European Policy (European Community Budget: HM Government options towards illegal Community budget for 1986) (Part 31)	Begins: 1985 Dec 4	Ends: 1986 Apr 30	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 410
PREM19/1749	European policy (European Community Budget: UK Presidency; policy after European court judgment on illegally set budget; protection of VAT ceiling and UK abatement) (Part 32)	Begins: 1986 Oct 1	Ends: 1986 Nov 29	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 298
PREM19/1750	European Policy (European Community Budget: report on UK applications for European Regional Development Grants) (Part 33)	Begins: 1984 Oct 1	Ends: 1986 Sep 22	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 362
PREM19/1751	European Policy (European Council meeting, London, December 1986) (Part 23)	Begins: 1985 Jul 15	Ends: 1986 Nov 28	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 271
PREM19/1752	European Policy (European Council meeting, Luxembourg, December 1985) (Part 24)	Begins: 1985 Nov 26	Ends: 1986 Jan 15	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 291

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