Government Departments: Whatsapp
The question
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many WhatsApp messages were (a) backed-up and (b) uploaded to official Government servers from his official phone in each month since July 2024.
Answered by Chris Ward
It is the responsibility of individual public servants, with the support of their Private Offices - where applicable - to ensure that they are fulfilling their record-keeping, security and transparency obligations. This includes uploading messages concerning substantive government business to HMG servers.
Technical arrangements for backing up messages from corporate mobile devices will vary across departments, but departments must ensure that government information is managed in line with the relevant legislation.
The forthcoming Independent Review into the use of non-corporate communications channels in Government will be examining this aspect of individual and departmental record-keeping, as well as all other elements of non-corporate communications use.
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