ICO investigating education secretary Michael Gove over use of Gmail for government business

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is investigating claims that education secretary Michael Gove used a personal Gmail account to conduct government business, meaning that key emails were hidden from Freedom of Information (FoI) requests.

The situation came to light after The Financial Times submitted an FoI request to the Department for Education (DfE) for access to certain emails sent by Gove, which civil servants were unable to find owing to the use of the Gmail account.

Emails subsequently unearthed by the FT revealed that Gove's chief special advisor, Dominic Cummings, told others in the Conservative Party that Gove wanted emails sent to his Gmail account, which is in breach of government rules.

"I will not answer any further emails to my official DfE account. 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," Gove is alleged to have written.

An ICO spokesperson confirmed that the watchdog is investigating, but refused to divulge any more information.

"The Information Commissioner has written to the permanent secretary at the DfE to raise concerns about the department's handling of FoI requests. It would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage," the spokesperson said.

Despite this, the DfE said that permanent secretary Sir David Bell "believes that the secretary of state and special advisers acted within the law".

Section 77 of the FoI Act bans individuals from attempting to "erase, destroy or conceal any record held by the public authority, with the intention of preventing the disclosure", and carries a fine of up to £5,000.

Denis Sennechael, UK vice president at software and services firm Axway, warned that such a strategy could put emails between government staff at risk from growing security threats.

"The government's email network will have many layers of security and encryption to prevent sensitive data leaking out. Gmail, on the other hand, doesn't have the same levels of control and can make an attractive target for unscrupulous individuals," he said.

"It's not just speculation. Just a few months ago the Gmail accounts of high-ranking US officials were allegedly broken into by Chinese hackers who could then see all communications to or from the account."