Nicola’s SNP email account not checked by FOI off icials

NicoLA sturgeon uses her sNP email account to conduct government business – but it is not included in freedom of information (Foi) responses, officials have admitted.

in a major breach of strict guidelines, officials said they do not check the First Minister’s party account when responding to information requests.

earlier this month it was revealed that Miss sturgeon has been using the email address to conduct government business for years.

she was thrown into the centre of a fresh secrecy row after a memo, obtained by the times, revealed that officials had been instructed to direct urgent messages to her party account.

it said that routine correspondence should be sent to her private secretary.

theme mo included Miss sturgeon’s personal @snp.org email address for reference.

the s NP leader later admitted that the party account was used to conduct scottish Government business.

However, yesterday officials admitted they do not routinely check the sNP email address when conducting Foi requests.

in an Foi response, the scottish Government revealed there had been 49 requests in 2019 with people seeking information on correspondence sent and received by Miss sturgeon.

it said :‘ searches were conducted in relation to the (First Minister’s sNP) email address in seven cases’.

scottish conservative MsP Donald cameron said: ‘this shows that in the vast majority of information requests, correspondence from Nicola sturgeon’s party email wasn’t included at all.

‘through using this address she has been able to avoid proper scrutiny. Now that we know she has been using this email address for official business for over four years, we need the whole truth.’

the Foi response says: ‘Where a r equest f or i nformation expressly mentions a specific email address, we would of course carry out searches in relation to that address.

‘this accounts for the seven cases where [Miss sturgeon’s] sNP address was specifically searched for.’

this comes despite former information commissioner Kevin Dunion telling MsPs all private emails and WhatsApp messages used for government business must be handed over under Foi legislation. He claimed ministers and officials who break the law risk fines of up to £5,000.

However, speaking to Holy rood’ s post-legislative scrutiny committee Mr Dunion admitted he had never seen any such information published.

A scottish Government spokesman said: ‘emails about government business are always sent from or to government accounts and are accessible in our systems, even if received from anon-government account. it would not be proportionate to routinely search non-government email accounts for material already recovered from our own networks.’