Dame Sally Davies (Image: PA Archive/PA Images)
Chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies, 69, has warned families to turn off devices before going to sleep to prevent side effects from light pollution. She claims the "impact of smartphone screen use and blue light" has contributed to daily pollutants that are fuelling a rise in deaths from cancer, together with lung and heart conditions. But we can reveal Dame Sally, who has a £773 iPad Pro tablet funded by taxpayers, has been sending emails before bedtime.
Official records, which government health chiefs tried to keep secret, show she sent three emails after 9pm in the four weeks before her "electronics off before bed" warning last March.
The latest was sent at 10.27pm - when many Britons are tucked up in bed.
Details of any text messages she sent after 9pm were not available as the mobile phone the chief medical officer (CMO) was using at the time had been replaced.
Asked whether she has a smartphone provided for her, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said: "In February 2018, the CMO was using her personal phone that she paid for herself with a DHSC-provided SIM card."
When asked about messages sent from her work smartphone after 9pm, it added: "DHSC does not hold this information.
The CMO does not have a work smartphone and has replaced the phone she was using at the time of the request."
The department initially refused to release any information about Dame Sally's emails and messages following a freedom of information request by the Sunday Express.
Officials claimed releasing the information would prejudice national security and the prevention of crime, harm commercial interests and would also breach data protection rules.
Britons are warned of the side effects of blue lights before sleep [FILE PIC] (Image: Thanasis Zovoilis/Getty Images)
But after the Sunday Express complained to the Information Commissioner, the DHSC decided to release details of the emails Dame Sally sent after 9pm between
