Amberhawk Training writes:
Does the use of Gmail or Hotmail by a Minister’s Private Office (in order to evade Freedom of Information (FOI) obligations) also lead to breaches in the Data Protection Act? Well, I can see how this could be the case.
The press has raised this issue only in the context of FOI. Yesterday’s Sunday Times, for example, noted that the allegations facing Michael Gove and his special adviser, Dominic Cummings, were that by using personal email accounts, they were assuming that any requested information could not be held by a public authority and therefore not subject to a FOI regime.
Read more on The Register of their analysis of the situation and whether the private email accounts, even if exempt under FOI, fall under the Data Protection Act and would impose certain obligations on them.