The authorities might be in court docket at the moment because it fights an order from the COVID inquiry to handover unredacted messages from Boris Johnson.
The probe was arrange by the previous prime minister to look into the dealing with of the pandemic, and hearings have already begun.
But its chair, Baroness Hallet, grew to become pissed off with the Cabinet Office final month after it held again a few of Mr Johnson's WhatsApps, diary entries and notebooks over fears they might compromise ministers' proper to privateness.
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She issued a legal order to the division to ship all of the paperwork over with out amendments, saying it was for her to determine what was related to the inquiry, however officers continued to refuse and at the moment are seeking a judicial review.
Announcing the court docket problem earlier this month "with regret", the Cabinet Office mentioned there have been "important issues of principle at stake, affecting both the rights of individuals and the proper conduct of government".
It mentioned it had explored "a number of possible avenues for resolving this difference of opinion", together with providing redacted variations of the supplies and "a more focused or sequential approach to the direction of the information requirements".
"We remain hopeful and willing to agree together the best way forward."
The resolution had the backing of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who mentioned he was "confident in the position it's taking".
The row uncovered the continuing rift between Mr Johnson and his successors in Downing Street, with him providing to handover the paperwork himself in contradiction with the federal government's place.
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But officers claimed what he provided up was nonetheless not all of the messages and entries required by the chair's order.
For instance, older messages from the ex-PM's cellphone - earlier than May 2021 - are now not out there to go looking as a result of he was suggested to not activate his previous gadget following a well-publicised safety breach in April that 12 months.
The authorities - and Mr Sunak himself - confronted accusations from opposition events that they had been obstructing the inquiry, with Labour's Angela Rayner calling it "a desperate attempt to withhold evidence".
She added: "Instead of digging himself further into a hole by pursuing doomed legal battles to conceal the truth, Rishi Sunak must comply with the COVID inquiry's requests for evidence in full. There can be no more excuses."
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