Archive

Large scale document 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 1851 - 1875 of 3726

Items per page
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/1853 National Health (Expenditure and efficiency in the National Health Service (NHS): Value for Money seminars; NHS Management Board) (Part 5) 1985 Apr 1 1986 May 30 2016 Feb 19 Secret 270
PREM19/1854 National Health (Expenditure and efficiency in the National Health Service (NHS): NHS Management Board) (Part 6) 1986 Jun 2 1986 Sep 30 2016 Feb 19 Secret 253
PREM19/1855 National Health (Committee on Human Fertilisation and Embryology (chaired by Lady Warnock); medical ethics; human surrogacy; German conference on bioethics) (Part 1) 1982 Feb 10 1986 Apr 4 2015 Dec 30 Confidential 210
PREM19/1856 National Health (Private Medical Care) 1979 May 22 1986 Feb 17 2015 Dec 30 Confidential 43
PREM19/1857 National Health (Area Health Authority Chairmen: reappointment and remuneration) 1981 Apr 27 1986 Jan 28 2016 Feb 19 Confidential 46
PREM19/1858 National Health (Mental health legislation: draft White Paper; release of dangerous psychopaths) 1981 Oct 26 1986 Apr 22 2015 Dec 30 1 Restricted 52
PREM19/1859 National Health (Study of leukaemia in Scotland) 1986 Jun 9 1986 Jun 9 2016 Feb 19 Unclassified 8
PREM19/1860 National Health (Contraception for the under sixteens) 1980 Apr 30 1986 Feb 27 2015 Dec 30 Confidential 35
PREM19/1861 National Health (Prime Minister's dinner for Regional Health Authority Chairmen, 25 September 1986) 1986 Jul 15 1986 Nov 3 2016 Feb 19 Confidential 76
PREM19/1862 National Health (Disposal of site of St George's Hospital, Hyde Park Corner: negotiations with Grosvenor Estate for sale of Crown portion) 1982 Jan 21 1986 Apr 23 2016 Feb 19 Confidential 83
PREM19/1863 National Health (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)) (Part 1) 1985 Aug 28 1986 Dec 31 2015 Dec 30 Confidential 240
PREM19/1864 National Health (Doctors' and dentists' pay; reports of Review Body) (Part 3) 1981 May 15 1986 May 29 2016 Feb 19 Secret 161
PREM19/1865 Nationalised Industries (Coal mines) (Part 19) 1985 Dec 2 1986 Jul 31 2015 Dec 30 1 Secret 341
PREM19/1866 Nationalised Industries (Gas and electricity policy: British Gas privatisation; Gas Bill) (Part 12) 1985 Dec 1 1986 Sep 18 2016 Feb 19 Secret 277
PREM19/1867 Nationalised Industries (Pay of Chairmen and Board members) (Part 3) 1984 Jun 1 1986 Apr 29 2016 Feb 19 Secret 334
PREM19/1868 Nationalised Industries (Nationalised industry policy; financial control) (Part 10) 1985 Mar 21 1986 May 27 2016 Feb 19 Secret 283
PREM19/1869 Nationalised Industries (Shipbuilding policy) (Part 8) 1985 Feb 4 1986 Jan 31 2018 Jul 24
PREM19/1870 Nationalised Industries (Shipbuilding policy) (Part 9) 1986 Feb 14 1986 Apr 30 2018 Jul 24
PREM19/1871 Nationalised Industries (Shipbuilding policy; British Shipbuilders) (Part 10) 1986 May 1 1986 Jun 30 2016 Jul 21 1 Confidential 268
PREM19/1872 Nationalised Industries (Shipbuilding: Hill-Norton Committee Report on Hull Forms for Warships ('short fat ships')) (Part 1) 1985 Jul 2 1986 Sep 29 2016 Jul 21 1 Confidential 373
PREM19/1873 Nationalised Industries (Nationalised Industries' Chairmen's Group) 1980 Mar 31 1986 Apr 9 2016 Jul 21 Confidential 160
PREM19/1874 Nationalised Industries (Organisation of electricity supply industry: private electricity generation) 1979 Jul 18 1986 Aug 6 2016 Jul 21 Confidential 85
PREM19/1875 Nigeria (UK/Nigeria relations: internal situation) (Part 1) 1979 Aug 16 1986 Oct 3 2017 Jul 20 10 Secret 310
PREM19/1876 Norway (Prime Minister's visit to Norway, September 1986) 1982 Nov 16 1986 Oct 7 2016 Jul 21 Confidential 104
PREM19/1877 Pakistan (UK/Pakistan relations: possibility of Pakistan rejoining the Commonwealth) 1979 Sep 1 1986 Nov 26 Temporarily retained by Department
Items per page