The Department for International Development (DFID) has one policy for email handling that applies to Ministers, officials and special advisers. Emails are retained for 90 days and automatically deleted after that period. If an email forms part of the official record, then it is saved into the Electronic Document and Records Management System. If the email is not apart of the official record it will either be deleted or purged at the end of the 90 day period. Email that has been purged cannot be recovered.Emails that have been saved as part of the official record are retained by DFID for defined periods or retained for transfer to The National Archive.