Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman forwarded official government documents to her private email 127 times while serving as a minister – risking security breaches

Suella Braverman forwarded official government documents to her private email 127 times while serving as a minister in a potential breach of the ministerial code.

The former home secretary was found to have breached security provisions of the ministerial code in October 2022, when she forwarded a draft ministerial statement from her personal email address to fellow Tory MP Sir John Hayes.

She was forced to resign from Liz Truss’s cabinet and acknowledged the security breach in her resignation letter, saying: ‘I have made a mistake; I accept responsibility; I resign.’

Ms Braverman was then re-appointed into the role by Rishi Sunak, who sacked her in November last year after comments she made condemning pro-Palestinian protests as ‘hate marches’ and accusing the Metropolitan Police of ‘playing favourites’.

Whilst working under Sunak’s premiership, Braverman admitted forwarding official correspondence to her private email account on six further occasions.

Thanks to a Freedom of Information request submitted by The Times, it has now been revealed that she was forwarding such correspondence routinely, with at least 290 documents attached, while serving as the government’s top legal officer between 2021 and 2022.

Weak security provisions meant ministers are banned from sharing sensitive emails and documents about government business with their private accounts.

It is not known whether Braverman forwarded sensitive or official documents to her personal account.

A tribunal judge forced the Attorney General’s Office to disclose details of Braverman’s use of her private email account while in government, following an 18-month transparency battle.

Obtaining records under the Freedom of Information Act is made a lot harder by the use of private emails and weakens the public’s right to information regarding government activities.

This in turn prevents a detailed record of decisions being retained and could make ministers less accountable for their decision-making, whilst also making the reviewing of contested or failed government policies harder.

Ministers are required to secure collective agreement prior to publication of any paper containing a major statement of government policy under the ministerial code.

This was breached by Braverman when she shared the document relating to immigration policy with Hayes.

Their has been a clear appetite for attacks on the Home Office’s IT infrastructure, after the Record reported that the department’s emails had recently been hacked by Russia.

It is not known whether Braverman forwarded sensitive or official documents to her personal account

The ministerial code was breached by Braverman when she shared the document relating to immigration policy with Hayes (pictured) 

Ciaran Martin, former head of the National Cyber Security Centre, said: ‘There is at least one recent precedent of Russia hacking politicians’ private emails to obtain politically sensitive material they have forwarded to themselves in an attempt to stoke discord, as happened to Liam Fox with a dossier of trade documents leaked and amplified during the 2019 election.’

‘Therefore, while high-level security material at the Home Office would be held on a separate system, forwarding emails outside the government network does give rise to a clear vulnerability. Moreover, a civil servant found to be doing this systematically would expect to face consequences lasting more than six days.’

Ms Braverman, the Home Office and the Cabinet Office have not offered a comment at this time.