Downing Street has been quietly deleting all its emails using a ‘Mission IMpossible’-style system that erases all communication more than three months old.

The system means it is very hard for members of the public to find out info using Freedom of Information requests.

The system, instituted ten years ago, but not widely known about, according to the FT, means that ALL emails are deleted unless individual employees choose to save them.

The system was instituted in 2004 – shortly before the Freedom of Information Act came into force in 2005.