Information Commissioner's Office reminds public sector that the Freedom of Information Act covers private emails if they are used for business matters
New guidance from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has made it clear that information about public sector business held in private email accounts is covered by the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act.
Christopher Graham, the information commissioner, said: "It should not come as a surprise to public authorities to have the clarification that information held in private email accounts can be subject to freedom of information law if it relates to official business.
"It came to light in September that this is a somewhat misunderstood aspect of the law and that further clarification was needed. That's why we've issued new guidance today."
The guidance has two aims. Firstly, to give public authorities a steer on the factors that should be considered before deciding whether a search of private email accounts is necessary when responding to an FoI request.
Secondly, to set out the procedures that should generally be in place to respond to requests. Graham said that the need to search private email accounts should be a rare occurrence and his office does not expect this advice to increase the burden on public authorities.
The guidance emphasises that if a public authority decides that a private email account could include official information which is not held elsewhere, it will need to ask the individual concerned to search their account. There should be a record of the action taken to demonstrate that appropriate searches have taken place.
It says that public authorities should remind staff that deleting or concealing information with the intention of preventing its disclosure is a criminal offence under section 77 of the act.
In addition, the ICO says that it is accepted that, in certain circumstances, it may be necessary to use private email for public authority business. However, it calls for a policy which clearly states that in these cases an authority email address should be copied in to ensure the completeness of the authority's records.
This article is published by Guardian Professional. For updates on public sector IT, join the Government Computing Network here.
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