Minister: Officials must keep texts

Danish politicians and officials are required to save their text messages following the updated guidelines brought in after the mink culling controversy, where key politicians set their phones to auto-delete texts. Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard stated that despite the word ‘should’ being used, it implies an obligation to retain texts. Ordinary officials must save texts for five years, chiefs for ten years, and ministers and department heads for twenty-five years. The mink commission’s inquiries revealed that some of the deleted texts were recoverable from recipients’ phones, highlighting the dilemma encountered by department heads, including Barbara Bertelsen, who indicated that responsibility for the culling without legal backing should fall on the then-food minister, Mogens Jensen. Hummelgaard underlines that guidelines have been in place since 2022, but were updated prior to summer 2024, mandating the preservation of texts without auto-deletion.