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 1751 - 1775 of 3726

Per page:

File name	File title	Begins	Ends	Release date	Any docs withheld?	Classification	Pages
PREM19/1753	European Policy (Visits to UK by Presidents of the European Commission, Gaston Thorn (March 1983 - June 1984) and Jacques Delors (May 1985 - February 1987): meetings with Prime Minister) (Part 2)	Begins: 1983 Feb 15	Ends: 1986 Dec 31	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 212
PREM19/1754	European Policy (Conservative European Reform Group (ERG): meetings with Prime Minister)	Begins: 1980 Dec 11	Ends: 1986 Apr 14	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 102
PREM19/1755	European Policy (European Institute of Public Administration at Maastricht)	Begins: 1981 Nov 19	Ends: 1986 Aug 18	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Unclassified	Pages: 17
PREM19/1756	European Policy (European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR): impact of European Court of Human Rights findings on UK domestic law) (Part 1)	Begins: 1980 Nov 12	Ends: 1986 May 15	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 346
PREM19/1757	Foreign Policy (Summary notes on Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) Assessments) (Part 1)	Begins: 1983 Sep 22	Ends: 1986 Jul 29	Date of release: Retained		Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/1758	Foreign Policy (Review of the British Council) (Part 1)	Begins: 1979 Aug 9	Ends: 1986 Jul 21	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Secret	Pages: 279
PREM19/1759	Foreign Policy (East/West relations) (Part 6)	Begins: 1985 Dec 1	Ends: 1986 Oct 30	Date of release: 2015 Dec 30	Any docs withheld? 4	Classification: Secret	Pages: 329
PREM19/1760	France (Anglo-French relations) (Part 3)	Begins: 1985 Jul 4	Ends: 1986 Oct 23	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30	Any docs withheld? 3	Classification: Top Secret	Pages: 204
PREM19/1761	France (Internal situation) (Part 2)	Begins: 1982 Feb 5	Ends: 1986 Sep 24	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 290
PREM19/1762	France (Visits to UK by President Mitterrand) (Part 5)	Begins: 1985 Oct 16	Ends: 1986 Nov 28	Date of release: 2019 Feb 6	Any docs withheld? 7	Classification: Top Secret	Pages: 239
PREM19/1763	Germany (Internal situation) (Part 2)	Begins: 1982 Oct 1	Ends: 1986 May 30	Date of release:	Any docs withheld? 1	Classification: Top Secret	Pages: 348
PREM19/1764	Germany (Anglo-German relations) (Part 3)	Begins: 1984 Oct 1	Ends: 1986 Sep 22	Date of release:		Classification: Secret	Pages: 306
PREM19/1765	Germany (Prime Minister's meetings with Chancellor Helmut Kohl) (Part 15)	Begins: 1983 Nov 11	Ends: 1986 May 28	Date of release: 2015 Dec 30		Classification: Secret	Pages: 276
PREM19/1766	Gibraltar (Policy towards Gibraltar: discussions with Spanish under Lisbon and Brussels Agreements) (Part 5)	Begins: 1984 Apr 6	Ends: 1986 Oct 24	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30
PREM19/1767	Government Buildings (The building of an international conference centre on the Broad Sanctuary site and the redevelopment of the Bridge Street and Richmond Yard sites) (Part 2)	Begins: 1983 Mar 16	Ends: 1986 Oct 31	Date of release: 2015 Jul 16	Any docs withheld? 6	Classification: Confidential	Pages: 289
PREM19/1768	Government Buildings (Edward Erdman Surveyors report on the redevelopment of the Bridge Street site)	Begins: 1983 Feb 1	Ends: 1986 Feb 28	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Unclassified	Pages: 40
PREM19/1769	Government Machinery (Advisory Council on Applied Research and Development (ACARD)) (Part 4)	Begins: 1986 Mar 5	Ends: 1986 Dec 18	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 280
PREM19/1770	Government Machinery (Crown Agents Tribunal of Enquiry: future of the Crown Agents) (Part 1)	Begins: 1979 Jun 11	Ends: 1986 Jan 29	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 201
PREM19/1771	Government Machinery (Review of administrative forms) (Part 1)	Begins: 1980 Aug 14	Ends: 1986 Oct 31	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 326
PREM19/1772	Government Machinery (Rayner Scrutiny programme: promotion of efficiency and elimination of waste; White Paper on deregulation) (Part 20)	Begins: 1985 Dec 1	Ends: 1986 May 30	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 401
PREM19/1773	Government Machinery (Rayner Scrutiny programme: promotion of efficiency and elimination of waste; Efficiency Unit report on 'The Use of Value for Money Targets 1985-86', volume II)	Begins: 1986 Apr 1	Ends: 1986 Apr 30	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 65
PREM19/1774	Government Machinery (Rayner Scrutiny programme: promotion of efficiency and elimination of waste) (Part 21)	Begins: 1986 Jun 2	Ends: 1986 Oct 31	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 339
PREM19/1775	Government Machinery (Ministerial responsibility for coordinating the presentation of government policies)	Begins: 1983 Nov 28	Ends: 1986 Jul 28	Date of release: 2015 Jul 15	Any docs withheld? 1	Classification: Secret	Pages: 310
PREM19/1776	Government Machinery (The 70th anniversary of the Cabinet Office)	Begins: 1986 Oct 21	Ends: 1986 Dec 5	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Restricted	Pages: 35
PREM19/1777	Government Machinery (Possible transfer of responsibility for VAT Tribunals from Customs and Excise to the Lord Chancellor: dePartmental responsibility for tribunals)	Begins: 1985 Apr 1	Ends: 1986 Dec 4	Date of release: 2014 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 92

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