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 2076 - 2100 of 3726

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/2107 Economic Policy (Public sector pay policy; Treasury monitoring reports) (Part 13) Begins: 1984 Oct 4 Ends: 1987 Jul 23 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21
PREM19/2108 Economic Policy (G7 Summit - Toronto: Prime Minister's Personal Representative for Economic Summits; briefing for second meeting of Personal Representatives ('Sherpas'), Quebec, February 1988) (Part 1) Begins: 1987 Oct 30 Ends: 1988 Jan 28 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Confidential Pages: 297
PREM19/2109 Economic Policy (G7 Summit - Toronto: Prime Minister's Personal Representative for Economic Summits; briefing for third meeting of Personal Representatives ('Sherpas'), Paris, May 1988) (Part 2) Begins: 1988 Mar 1 Ends: 1988 May 31 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Confidential Pages: 364
PREM19/2110 Economic Policy (G7 Summit - Toronto: Prime Minister's Personal Representative for Economic Summits; 'Sherpa' papers) (Part 3) Begins: 1988 Jun 1 Ends: 1988 Jul 29 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 340
PREM19/2111 Economic Policy (Bank takeovers and mergers; takeover bids for Royal Bank of Scotland Group, 1981) Begins: 1981 Apr 8 Ends: 1987 Jul 6 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Confidential Pages: 97
PREM19/2112 Economic Policy (Pay Review Body reports: top salaries, armed forces, doctors and dentists, nurses, midwives and professions allied to medicine) (Part 9) Begins: 1986 Oct 27 Ends: 1988 May 26 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Secret and Personal Pages: 334
PREM19/2113 Education (Department of Education and Science (DES) draft circular 'Providing for Quality: the Pattern of Organisation to Age 19': proposed consultation) Begins: 1986 Jun 30 Ends: 1986 Jul 21 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19
PREM19/2114 Education (Review of dental education; proposed closure of two dental schools) Begins: 1988 Jun 29 Ends: 1988 Aug 9 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19
PREM19/2115 Education (Education seminar held by the Prime Minister at Downing Street, 2 October 1985) Begins: 1985 Aug 30 Ends: 1986 Jan 1 Date of release: 2015 Dec 30
PREM19/2116 Education (New blood for research and information technology: follow-up to the Alvey Report on Advanced Information Technology; international collaboration; the EUREKA programme) Begins: 1982 Nov 30 Ends: 1987 Sep 4 Date of release: 2016 Nov 7 Classification: Secret and Personal Pages: 163
PREM19/2117 Education (General policy on education and education expenditure: future of polytechnics; funding regime for schools) (Part 10) Begins: 1986 Nov 3 Ends: 1986 Dec 23 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Secret and Personal Pages: 254
PREM19/2118 Education (General policy on education and education expenditure; future of polytechnics) (Part 11) Begins: 1987 Jan 22 Ends: 1987 Feb 28 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19
PREM19/2119 Education (General policy on education and education expenditure; national school curriculum; financial delegation and opting out) (Part 12) Begins: 1987 Mar 2 Ends: 1987 Apr 30 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19
PREM19/2120 Education (General policy on education and education expenditure: national curriculum; future of Inner London Education Authority (ILEA); financial delegation to schools; financial crisis at University College Cardiff) (Part 13) Begins: 1987 May 1 Ends: 1987 Jul 14 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Confidential Pages: 331
PREM19/2121 Education (General policy on education and education expenditure; national curriculum; bogus degrees; charges for school activities; grant maintained schools; counter-obstruction measures; education reform in Scotland and Wales; financial delegation) (Part 14) Begins: 1987 Jul 15 Ends: 1987 Jul 31 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19 Classification: Confidential Pages: 425
PREM19/2122 Education (General policy on education and education expenditure: bogus degrees; financial delegation; charges for school activities; grant maintained schools; national curriculum; open enrolment; education in Scotland and Wales) (Part 15) Begins: 1987 Aug 3 Ends: 1987 Oct 30 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Confidential and Personal Pages: 222
PREM19/2123 Education (General policy on education and education expenditure: national curriculum; education in Scotland and Wales; Education Reform Bill; financial delegation; Government response to Education, Science and Arts Select Committee report) (Part 16) Begins: 1987 Nov 2 Ends: 1987 Dec 30 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Any docs withheld? 2 Classification: Confidential Pages: 312
PREM19/2124 Education (General policy on education and education expenditure: Education Reform Bill; education in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland; financial delegation; grant maintained schools; national curriculum; future of Paisley Grammar School; charges forschool activities; opting out of Local Education Authority (LEA) control; religious education) (Part 17) Begins: 1988 Jan 7 Ends: 1988 Mar 30 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 405
PREM19/2125 Education (General policy on education and education expenditure; Education Reform Bill; opting out of Local Education Authority (LEA) control in Scotland; position of National Union of Students (NUS); Christian education; admission to maintained schools;polytechnics; national curriculum issues; Higginson Report on future of 'A' levels) (Part 18) Begins: 1988 Apr 6 Ends: 1988 May 26 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 262
PREM19/2126 Education (General policy on education and education expenditure; Higginson Report on future of 'A' levels; polytechnics; City Arts College; national curriculum issues; opting out of Local Education (Part 19) Begins: 1988 Jun 1 Ends: 1988 Nov 30 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Secret Pages: 343
PREM19/2127 Education (Reorganisation of schools in Ilkeston, Derbyshire: Prime Minister's concern at deficiencies in Department of Education and Science (DES) decision-making procedures) Begins: 1987 Dec 2 Ends: 1988 Feb 24 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 56
PREM19/2128 Education (Teachers' pay) (Part 9) Begins: 1986 Nov 3 Ends: 1987 Mar 30 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19
PREM19/2129 Education (Teachers' pay) (Part 10) Begins: 1987 Apr 2 Ends: 1987 Sep 9 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Any docs withheld? 5 Classification: Confidential Pages: 197
PREM19/2130 Education (Future of the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA)) (Part 4) Begins: 1984 Apr 3 Ends: 1987 Jul 30 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Secret Pages: 267
PREM19/2131 Education (Future of the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA): opting out of ILEA by London boroughs; contingency plans for abolition) (Part 5) Begins: 1987 Aug 20 Ends: 1988 Jun 23 Date of release: 2015 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 253
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