In the recent decision
Keiller v IC and University of East Anglia, the Tribunal allowed an appeal to go ahead against the ICO. In rejecting the argument that once deleted, an email was not ‘held’, it stated that ‘it was a matter of common-sense’ that information on a backup server was still recoverable after deletion. As well as consequences in terms of potential disclosure under FOI, this case also reminds institutions to have coherent data retention and deletion policies up to date for all communications.