Security issues have been raised following the invention that the Prime Minister has been utilizing pens with erasable ink at official conferences and through authorities enterprise. He has additionally been seen utilizing the pen to signal letters.

According to a report printed by a nationwide newspaper and web site, Rishi Sunak routinely makes use of Pilot V pens when making hand-written notes on official paperwork and in Cabinet conferences.

The pens are marketed as being in contrast to most different disposable fountain pens as they've "real tipping, making for a smooth, rounded writing point, and a much more enjoyable writing experience." However, variations of Pilot V pens additionally use erasable ink.

The Guardian has reported that the Prime Minister is commonly pictured utilizing the disposable pens — each throughout his time as chancellor and now as premier. He was most lately seen utilizing the pen to take notes throughout a Cabinet assembly earlier this month.

He was photographed with the pen whereas engaged on authorities papers and signing official letters in Downing Street, and at worldwide summits — together with a gathering of the European political neighborhood in Moldova in the beginning of June.

The pens, which price round £5, carry an “erasable ink” brand and the Japanese stationery firm that makes them promotes them as “ideal for those learning to write with ink because if you make a mistake, the ink erases using standard ink eradicators”.

Some observers have famous that Mr Sunak’s use of the pens might imply that his hand-written notes could possibly be erased from official papers which can be later lodged in authorities archives or retrieved for use to discuss with in impartial investigations, such because the official Covid inquiry.

According to No 10, the pens, supplied by the Civil Service, are used broadly in Whitehall, together with by everlasting secretaries.

The Guardian reported that the written notes of earlier prime ministers have been "an essential resource for historians detailing the inner workings of government at key periods in history". It cited for example Margaret Thatcher’s handwritten notes, which disclosed her plans for emergency measures on the top of the miners’ strike and Cabinet disagreements over how to reply to Argentina's invasion of the Falklands in 1982.

In the US, presidents use pens with everlasting ink to make sure there isn't any hazard of phrases being erased, fading or being broken by warmth or damp. Mr Sunak’s social media accounts, nevertheless, do present him him utilizing everlasting ink to really signal official paperwork, together with an financial settlement with India in October 2020 when he was chancellor.

The Guardian reported that Mr Sunak’s press secretary as saying of the erasable model: “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.”

The disclosure follows current claims of governmental lack of transparency, together with a plan to go to court docket to cease the official Covid inquiry from accessing ministers' WhatsApp messages. The Guardian reported earlier this week that the Government below Mr Sunak had positioned a file variety of blocks on freedom of data requests in its first three months, resulting in accusations of a “concealment culture in government ranks.

Figures show that the Government acceded to information requests in just one third of requests in which it held relevant data. Just 3,895 of 11,597 “resolvable requests” had been granted in full. Allies of the Prime Minister have insisted that he has nothing to cover.

Tom Brake, a former Liberal Democrat MP and director of the stress group Unlock Democracy, advised The Guardian: “When trust in politicians is at an all-time low, the PM signing official documents in erasable ink could push it through the floor and into the basement. Erasable ink, lost mobile phones and disappearing WhatsApp messages all add to a picture of a cavalier attitude towards ensuring government is accountable for its actions.”

A Labour supply added: “We already know Rishi Sunak is addicted to evasion, whether he’s hiding WhatsApp messages from the Covid inquiry or still refusing to disclose his full tax affairs — so no wonder people are going to be curious about his choice of these pens.

“But no amount of erasable ink can cover up his dismal record of failure and broken promises as chancellor and as prime minister.”