Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to reform the Ministerial Code to take greater account of ministerial communication by (1) text, (2) Signal, (3) WhatsApp, and (4) other encrypted messaging services.

Ministers’ formal meetings with external organisations are published quarterly on gov.uk.

Ministers will have informal conversations from time to time, in person or remotely, and significant content relating to government business from such discussions is passed back to officials.

Ministers will use a range of digital forms of communication for discussions in line with relevant guidance on information handling and security.

The Cabinet Office has previously published guidance on how information is held for the purposes of access to information, and how formal decisions are recorded for the official record. Ministers are also given advice on the security of electronic communications.