Ministers of the Northern Ireland Assembly email

Information Standards Freedom of Information Response

Our Ref: FoI 25-21

28 July 2021

Freedom of Information Act 2000

I am writing in response to your recent Freedom of Information request received 30 June 2021.  In your request you asked for the following information:

“No.10 admits Matt Hancock did use private email for official work and refuses to say if rules were broken - The Independent, 29 June 2021

As per; the story above. Does this practice occur in the Northern Ireland Assembly: use of personal email for official business?”

The article that you provided is a link that refers to Private Emails by UK Government Ministers and the practice of whether this complies with Government rules. The question of whether Ministers in the NI Executive use private emails is a matter for the Northern Ireland Executive. The Assembly Commission has an Information Assurance Policy as well as a Records and Email Management Policy which applies solely to the staff of the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission Secretariat. These policies do not apply to Ministers in the conduct of their Ministerial Business.

If you feel that the information we have provided does not meet your request fully, please contact this office as soon as possible.  You have the right to request a formal review by the Assembly Commission and if you wish to do so, please write to me at the above address.

If after such an internal review you are still unhappy with the response, you have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF who will undertake an independent review.

The Assembly Commission may publish details of your FOI request and our official response within the organisational disclosure log. The request will be completely anonymised and you will not be identified in any way. This is to meet the requirements as laid out by in the agreed publication scheme with the Information Commissioners’ Office.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please remember to quote the reference number above.

Yours sincerely

INFORMATION STANDARDS & DATA PROTECTION OFFICER