British ministers’ private texts may be subject to FOI

(The Guardian): UK Ministers' text messages as well as emails sent from private accounts could be subject to public scrutiny, the government has conceded. The Cabinet Office will shortly issue new guidance to ministers and officials, making clear that decisions on whether information is subject to the Freedom of Information Act depend on the nature of the information and not the format in which it is held. It comes after the Department for Education dropped a battle to prevent the release of details of an email sent by Michael Gove, the secretary of state, from his wife's private account. The information commissioner, Christopher Graham, ruled this year that the email should have been released following a request by the Financial Times.

The principle of the accessibility of ministers' texts and private emails was set out clearly last December by the information commissioner, who said: "Information held in non-work personal email accounts (eg Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail) may be subject to the Freedom of Information Act if it relates to the official business of the public authority."

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