Emails sent from computers in Downing Street are automatically deleted within three months under a system that makes it harder for the public to obtain answers to �freedom of information� requests, former staff have disclosed.
The email system was introduced under the Labour government in late 2004, just weeks before January 2005 when the Freedom of Information Act belatedly came into force.
The Act implements a manifesto commitment of the Labour Party in the 1997 general election, developed by Dr David Clark as a 1997 White Paper. The final version of the Act is believed by Ben Robertson to have been diluted from that proposed while Labour was in opposition. The full provisions of the act came into force on 1 January 2005.
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