Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how long emails are retained by his Department for (a) civil servants, (b) special advisors and (c) Ministers.

Decisions about retaining emails are based on the importance of their content, including whether they are of historical interest and need permanent preservation at The National Archives. Following the merger of DFID and FCO on 2 September 2020 to form FCDO, legacy departmental email systems remain in operation pending a wider integration of IT systems. Emails on the former DFID system are automatically retained for 90 days before deletion, though staff can decide to store important emails for longer. In the former FCO there is no automatic retention or deletion of emails.