Question

To ask the Chairman of Committees whether any members of the House have been asked to provide written consent for their Parliamentary emails to be monitored by MessageLabs antivirus software.

All users, including Members, agree to abide by Parliament’s Acceptable Use Policy every time they log on to the Parliamentary Network. This policy makes clear that the Parliamentary Digital Service provides systems to protect Parliamentary users (and the network) from malicious attack.

The Messagelabs service is an important part of the infrastructure protecting Members and the wider Parliamentary Network against malicious attack. It is a fully automated scanning service which scans for and blocks emails that are potential vectors for cyber-attack. It also scans for and quarantines emails that are suspected spam, again using fully automated systems. It does not involve any other form of monitoring of the content of parliamentary email.