Dear Sir or Madam,

Please supply me with the following information:

1. Does your Council provide councillors with an email facility
which allows them to receive and send email using your council's
email address?

2. If you do have such a facility are councillors able to access
the system from their home or other remote location?

3. Does your council allow email sent to councillors to be
auto-forwarded to unsecure external email addresses such as
hotmail?

4. If auto-forwarding is allowed how many of your councillors are
having their email auto-forwarded?

Yours faithfully,

Sara King

dear Sara King

you asked about councillor's email facilities:

1. Does your Council provide councillors with an email facility which allows them to receive and send email using your council's email address?
A: Yes

2. If you do have such a facility are councillors able to access the system from their home or other remote location?
A: Yes

3. Does your council allow email sent to councillors to be auto-forwarded to unsecure external email addresses such as hotmail?
A: This is discouraged but not forbidden. Between April and September 2009, City of York Council will adopt an official policy to no longer permit auto-forwarded mails to a 'lower level' domain.

4. If auto-forwarding is allowed how many of your councillors are having their email auto-forwarded?
A: One. However this is to an internet service provider address with whom the Councillor has a private account, not to a free-to-use service such as Hotmail. The auto-forward will be revoked by September 2009 in compliance with the above policy.

yours sincerely, Robert Beane

Robert Beane
Information Governance Officer, City of York Council
PO Box 31, Library Square, York, YO1 7DU
01904 552933
[City of York Council request email] or [email address]

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