What official information, if any, is held on a private email account of a current or former staff member in the Minister’s office and has not been placed on the official record since 27 November 2023; and what steps are being taken to recover them?

Answer

Ministerial Services is responsible for staff appropriately retaining official information. The deliberate use of a personal email account to conduct work activities as an alternate to using the work email provided to staff is not permitted. However, from time to time there are justifiable reasons for a private email to be used – for example an inability to print from their parliamentary email address while travelling, sending a copy of a press release to their private email to copy and paste to media via messaging because they are unable to copy and paste from Outlook. Staff are also entitled to send to personal email addresses documents related to their employment – for example, copies of employment agreements or performance reviews. Staff in Ministers’ offices have been reminded that they If they have used a personal email account for portfolio related activities, the material created or received may constitute a public record. The material must be reviewed and securely saved.