"MILLIONS of e-mails to civil servants at the heart of government will be automatically wiped on Monday, 11 days before freedom of information laws come into force.

The Cabinet Office, which supports the Prime Minister and co-ordinates policy across government, has ruled that e-mails more than three months old must be deleted from December 20, The Times has learnt."

Speaks for itself and as the Assistant Information Commissioner has said in response this just creates a big risk that important information will be lost. I've worked for organisations who mistakenly believed they needed to blindly purge information which had existed in files for longer than some arbitrary nominal period and chaos inevitably ensues. No doubt some in government are feeling a little sensitive about the email that led to David Blunkett's resignation last week and although it won't have been the determining factor in making this decision it will have featured. Pity. When it comes to complex systems, simplistic blanket policies rarely if ever work as intended and this one will return to haunt in due course.