Education Secretary Michael Gove is accused of having used private email to conduct government business.
The information commissioner has written to the permanent secretary at the Department for Education to raise concerns about the department's handling of FOI requests. A spokeswoman for the Information Commissioner's Office said it was still making inquiries and had not launched an investigation.
The FT reports that Dominic Cummings, Gove's chief political aide, wrote to colleagues shortly after he was appointed stating he "will not answer any further emails to my official DfE account …"
The email continued: "i will only answer things that come from gmail accounts from people who i know who they are. i suggest that you do the same in general but thats obv up to you guys – i can explain in person the reason for this …"
Tut tut.
What I don't understand is why this is unacceptable for government ministers but not for other state functionaries, such as academics.