THE UK Government will not search former health secretary Matt Hancock’s private emails for discussion of official business, it has said.
Campaigners called for Hancock’s personal inbox to be swept after Downing Street admitted he had used it for official business.
The news emerged after Hancock resigned amid backlash over kissing an aide in his departmental office in a breach of social distancing guidelines.
In the wake of the scandal, the Sunday Times reported that Hancock and Lord Bethell used their personal email addresses for government business. The newspaper said that the Government has little record of Hancock’s decision making during the Covid-19 crisis due to the use of the email account.
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The Good Law Project’s lawyers wrote to the Government earlier this month asking for Hancock’s emails to be searched, alongside Bethell’s. In response they were told that this would be “neither necessary nor proportionate”.
The UK Government said it had already looked through more than 1.4 million documents in a disclosure exercise, telling the campaigners: "Nothing in those documents... indicated that it was necessary to search the private emails of the named individuals to ensure that all relevant information and all material facts were put before the court in compliance with the duty of candour."
Good Law Project director Jolyon Maugham (above) described the situation as “bizarre”.
"They clearly don't want the public to know what's there - and perhaps they fear finding out themselves,” he said.
Ministers are allowed to use their personal email addresses to conduct government business but guidance states they must “take steps to ensure the relevant information is accessible” on “substantive” matters.
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