The news that Matt Hancock routinely used a private email address while in office has prompted a flurry of questions. Labour has called for an investigation, accusing the now departed health secretary of attempting to “conduct official government business in secret”.
The revelation that the former health secretary did not even have a departmental email address has been followed by news of other Conservative ministers using private email. So why would politicians use only their personal email account? Well, the main reason is probably to avoid Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation.
FOI can be a powerful weapon, and one that is often hard to resist. However, this doesn’t stop politicians and governments from trying their best to stop it revealing things. While government-wide, systematic resistance is rare, there are examples of it, often at very high levels.
