The news between education secretary Michael Gove and the Information Commissioner's Office, where the Department for Education has been reluctant to respond to an FOI request asking for data sent in private email account.

It was revealed in September last year that the ICO had written to the DfE raising concern about its handling of a FOI request made by the Financial Times.

The newspaper claimed that it had evidence relating to Education Secretary Michael Gove's private emails, which contained departmental business, that the DfE had not handed over upon request. The DfE claimed at the time that Gove and his special advisors had not been circumventing the official government email network and that it believed they had acted within the law.

However, the BBC has seen a letter sent to the ICO from the director of law and information rights at the Department for Education, Claire Johnston, which states that the department will give up its dispute over releasing the details of emails sent from Gove's private account.

The letter also refers to new guidance about the scope of FOI requests that will 'shortly' be released by the Cabinet Office.