Labour is calling for a “full-scale” investigation into ministers’ use of private emails to conduct government business amid allegations the former health secretary Matt Hancock used his personal account.
Despite dramatically resigning from cabinet over the weekend, the Labour Party added to mounting questions over Mr Hancock’s conduct in government, warning that vital information could be have been concealed due to use of a private Gmail account.
According to reports, leaked minutes from a December meeting at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) showed that Mr Hancock had been using an unofficial account since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020.
The Sunday Times said the minutes revealed that David Williams – then second permanent secretary at the department – warning that the former cabinet minister “only” dealt with his private office “via Gmail account”.
The newspaper added that the senior civil servant said: “The SOS [secretary of state] does not have a DHSC inbox,” and also claimed that health minister Lord Bethell “routinely uses his private inbox”, but that official accounts had been provided afterwards.
He said he “doesn’t believe there were inappropriate acts on behalf of ministers but can clearly see the optics suggest otherwise”.
Cabinet Office guidelines say that if personal accounts are used for government business, either the sender or receiver must “take steps to ensure the relevant information is accessible (e.g. by copying it to a government email address)” for record-keeping purposes.
In a statement on Sunday, a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “All DHSC ministers understand the rules around personal email usage and only conduct business through their department email address.”
But calling for a wider probe into the issue, Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, insisted: “The buck doesn’t stop with Hancock and this matter is not closed. This government is rotten to its core.
“We need to know how wide this goes and how much government business is being conducted in secret,” she added.
“This shady practice has the potential to conceal vital information of public waste of taxpayers’ money that has been given to friends of Conservative ministers.”
In a letter to the cabinet secretary, Simon Case – the most senior civil servant in government – Ms Rayner said the use of private emails would hinder scrutiny of ministerial decisions, citing both the impact on freedom of information requests and any future public inquiry.
“There is also a clear security risk if ministers are using private email accounts to discuss government business, leading to the leaking of sensitive information, or the blackmail of ministers by hostile actors.”
Ms Rayner asked the cabinet secretary to clarify whether the use of private emails could potentially be in breach of the Official Secrets Act, the Freedom of Information Act, the Data Protection Act or the Public Records Act.
And she requested to know what steps were being taken by the government to secure Mr Hancock and health minister Lord Bethell’s emails so they can be used as evidence in the Covid public inquiry, which is expected to begin next spring.
The deputy leader also urged the government to disclose whether any ministers had been using private email accounts in relation to the awarding of government contracts during the pandemic.
A spokesperson for the Cabinet Office said: “We have received the letter and will respond in due course.”
Elsewhere, the cabinet minister Brandon Lewis also announced the launch of an internal investigation at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) into how footage was leaked of Mr Hancock embracing an aide in his private office.
The Northern Ireland secretary told Sky News the government needed to “understand exactly how that was recorded and how it got out of the system”, stressing it was an issue “we need to get to the bottom of” due to the sensitive work of government departments.
