Ministers face an official probe for withholding documents about Matt Hancock's contact with an American health tech firm.
Palantir is bidding for the £360 million contract to operate the NHS ’s main data platform.
But the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has sat on communications between Mr Hancock, his team and the firm during the pandemic for more than 18 months.
DHSC today claimed to be "committed to transparency and accountability", despite being in breach of transparency law.
The Mirror sought to obtain the emails in July 2021 under Freedom of Information laws.
They're usually required to release them within 20 working days - which can be extended to 40 working days if they need to consider whether it's 'in the public interest' to disclose.
But despite confirming they hold relevant documents, they've failed to release them - insisting it's taking a long time to 'consider them'.
In November, the Department claimed the information - just 45 days worth of emails and messages between a handful of staff members - "spans across several folders in our archive."
They added: "We are reviewing one last document with policy and are working on this as quickly as possible."
But a month on, DHSC said they were still "reviewing" the same document, but were working on it "as quickly as possible."
DSHC has now been reported to the Information Commissioner for investigation.
They law says: "A public authority must comply ... promptly and in any event not later than the twentieth working day following the date of receipt.”
Today is the 355th working day following the date of receipt.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “It is not correct to say that we have blocked this response. We respond to each unique Freedom of Information request according to the scope of information requested.
"We remain committed to transparency and accountability, and we’re working to provide a response to this request as soon as possible.”
Palantir, a US artificial intelligence firm that was once funded by the CIA, was handed a £23 million contract to process patient data under emergency Covid rules.
There's no suggestion of wrongdoing on the part of Mr Hancock or Palantir.
Mr Hancock met with representatives of the company in October 2020, to see a demonstration of the firm's software.
But in response to a previous FOI request, DHSC claimed it did not have a list of attendees or agenda for the meeting.
A previous meeting between Mr Hancock and the firm took place during a tech firm roundtable in March 2020.
But the meeting went undeclared until April 2022, when it was added to the ministerial register of meetings.
The Department said it had been left off the list due to an "administrative error".
