Cabinet Office and Prime Minister: Email
Commons · Question 1187 · Tabled 14 May 2026 · Cabinet Office · Official record
Answered 19 May 2026
Question
Asked by Mike Wood
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether (a) his Department and (b) 10 Downing Street Freedom of Information determine Government emails held on tape backups to be information held by the public authority.
Answer
Answered by Chris Ward, 19 May 2026
The Freedom of Information Code of Practice, issued in 2018 under the previous administration, states that information which is only held by a public authority in electronic backup files should generally be regarded as ‘not held’ for the purposes of the F...