It has raised concerns about secrecy in No 10 Downing Street (Pictures: No 10 Downing Street)
Rishi Sunak uses pens with erasable ink to make handwritten notes on official documents during meetings, it has been reported.
It has prompted concerns about secrecy within 10 Downing Street with Mr Sunak using disposable Pilot V fountain pens during his time both as PM and as chancellor, The Guardian has revealed.
It has raised concerns his notes could be erased from official papers handed over to the government archives or to independent investigations, such as the official Covid 19 inquiry.
Handwritten notes have been a valuable source for historians like Margaret Thatcher’s ones which revealed her plans for emergency measures during the miners’ strike and Cabinet disagreements over the Falklands War.
Mr Sunak has also used the mysterious pens at international summits including a meeting of the European political community in Moldova earlier this month.
The pens sell for a retail price of £4.75 and carry an ‘erasable ink’ logo.
They are marketed as ‘ideal for those learning to write with ink because if you make a mistake, the ink erases using standard ink eradicators’.
No 10 insiders claim the prime minister keeps all of his notes, while Sunak’s press secretary said: ‘This is a pen provided by and used widely by the civil service. The prime minister has never used the erase function and nor would he.’
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It is not the first time the government has been criticised for lack of transparency.
No 10 faced criticism for announcing earlier this month it was planning to go to court to try and block the Covid 19 inquiry from gaining access to WhatsApp messages.
The department claimed at the time it had provided ‘as much relevant information as possible and as quickly as possible’ to inquiry chairwoman Baroness Hallett.
The privacy of rank-and-file officials, former and current ministers and departments, however, is a ‘real concern’, the Cabinet Office confirmed.
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It has prompted concerns about secrecy in 10 Downing Street.