On 5 June 2026, Sir Laurie Magnus published a letter to Alex Burghart MP rejecting a request for a Ministerial Code investigation into the Office of the Prime Minister’s handling of record-keeping obligations. The GOV.UK notice says the request concerned whether the Code had been breached in relation to No 10’s adherence to record-keeping guidance, and Magnus said he was publishing his reply because of the public interest in a matter concerning the Prime Minister. (gov.uk)
In the published correspondence, Magnus records that Burghart asked him to examine whether the Prime Minister had personally used non-corporate channels for substantive exchanges with Lord Mandelson, whether relevant communications had been deleted, and whether some exchanges should have been handled at a higher classification. Magnus said his remit allows him to initiate inquiries into possible ministerial misconduct, but only where the allegation rests on some factual evidence rather than supposition alone. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
He then draws a clear jurisdictional line. The Independent Adviser’s terms of reference are concerned with the individual conduct of ministers in specific matters, not the actions or operations of government more broadly, including the operation of private offices. On that basis, Magnus said he could not address record-keeping within No 10 or the Government’s general approach to WhatsApp, and he saw no grounds for the investigation requested. In practical terms, the decision closes off an adviser-led case on the material submitted, but it does not amount to a system-wide finding that No 10’s record-keeping processes were compliant. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
The wider rulebook remains unchanged. The Ministerial Code says ministers and civil servants are expected to use government systems for government business, and that any use of non-corporate channels engages obligations to keep accurate public records. Cabinet Office guidance issued in March 2023 adds that significant government information shared through WhatsApp, private email or SMS should be captured into government systems, and says ministers and senior officials should consider including private office staff in groups so that capture happens in practice. (gov.uk)
Separate Cabinet Office guidance for private offices translates those principles into day-to-day record management. It says private offices should keep records of ministers’ meetings on substantive issues whatever the medium, including where discussion takes place via non-corporate channels, and should record decisions arising from telephone, online or WhatsApp exchanges. The same guidance states that accurate record-keeping is particularly important in private offices because that is where the most important decisions are made and because ministers are accountable to Parliament and the public. (gov.uk)
Burghart’s request was not made in a vacuum. Magnus notes that it relied in part on concerns voiced by the Intelligence and Security Committee about unofficial systems and missing records, and on Darren Jones’s statement to Parliament on 19 May 2026 that a review of non-corporate communication channels was about to begin. On 3 June, Jones told MPs that the Government was commissioning an independent review of those channels, including WhatsApp, and that the Cabinet Secretary had written to heads of department to clarify the record-keeping rules and ensure they were being properly applied. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
For Whitehall, the significance is therefore procedural rather than a finding of compliance. There will be no Independent Adviser investigation arising from this request, yet the underlying governance question remains live because the formal rules on public records are already in place and a separate cross-government review is under way. On the published material, any next stage of scrutiny looks more likely to come through Parliament, Cabinet Office action or departmental records management than through an adviser-led Ministerial Code inquiry into the Prime Minister on the facts presented here. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)