To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the policy is of (a) his Department, (b) non-departmental public bodies reporting to his Department and (c) executive agencies reporting to his Department on the time after which emails sent to and from the Department and those bodies are deleted; whether such emails are still recoverable after that date from the system; and if he will make a statement. (130985)

DEFRA’s policy is that significant emails (i.e. those containing information about DEFRA decisions or actions which should form part of the official record) are printed for file or saved and stored corporately in accordance with departmental record management procedures that also apply to paper information. DEFRA’s guidance on email management emphasises the importance of capturing all significant email messages but staff are encouraged to delete other emails, such as those relating to meeting arrangements and routine messages, as soon as possible. Deleted emails are recoverable for nine weeks after deletion.

DEFRA’s main Agencies/NDPBs follow broadly similar policies though the Environment Agency has implemented a system to delete any email which has not been saved after 180 days and the period during which backups are retained varies between organisations.