Civil servants are ordered to delete millions of emails

[TeeYiYi]

Civil servants are ordered to delete millions of emails
By Francis Elliott, Deputy Political Editor
19 December 2004

Tony Blair was savaged over his commitment to new freedom of information laws yesterday as it emerged that civil servants are being ordered to destroy millions of emails less than a fortnight before they will become publicly accessible.

The Cabinet Office has told officials to delete any email more than three months old tomorrow, just 11 days before the new freedom of information legislation comes into force. Although civil servants working in what is effectively Mr Blair's own department have been told to keep "important" electronic mail, there will be no monitoring of what is deleted.

Michael Howard yesterday rounded on the Prime Minister, accusing him of being "hypocritical". In a letter to Mr Blair, the Tory leader wrote: "There are reports that your Government is engaged on a massive email destruction binge in order to get round the law which you yourself passed," he wrote. "How hypocritical can you get? What is your Government trying to hide? The public are entitled to a clear and simple explanation as to what is going on."

<snip>

A spokeswoman last night insisted the move was not about the new laws or "the destruction of important records". She said: "Paying to store outdated records which are no longer any use wastes taxpayers' money."

More: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=594581

TYY

[aquart]

1. Yes, well. They're really very tiny.

[GOPFighter]

2. Paying to store outdated records????

Yeah, like emails cost a lot to store. (/sarcasm)

[Starlight]

3. CYA - download them to disk before deleting. n/t

[Moderator]

4. duplicate story - locking

discuss here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1083527