Written question asked by Michael Fabricant (Conservative) on Tuesday, 21 December 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 4 April 2005. It was answered by Fiona Mactaggart (Labour) on Monday, 4 April 2005 on behalf of the Home Office.

Home Office

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make a statement on his Department's policy regarding the retention of e-mails in electronic form (a) after and (b) up to 1st January 2005; and what instructions have been given regarding the deletion of e-mails prior to 1st January 2005.

Answer: Michael Fabricant: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on his Department's policy regarding the retention of e-mails in electronic form (a) after and (b) up to 1 January 2005; and what instructions have been given regarding the deletion of e-mails prior to 1 January 2005. [206963] Fiona Mactaggart: The Department continues to implement well established policies and procedures for the review and disposal of files in accordance with its administrative needs and the Public Records Act. E-mail messages that form part of the official record are saved for as long as business needs require and stored corporately in accordance with departmental record management procedures. Further e-mail guidance is available on the National Archives website at: http:// www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/electronicrecords/advice/ pdf/managing emails.pdf. Departmental policies are kept under review and this is the case for all record management policies. There has been no change to policies over the last 12 months. They continue to treat e-mails as one of the many document types containing business information and so they are used as part of the business record accordingly.

Secondary information