The government has offered no explanation after numerous replies to Freedom of Information enquiries disappeared off its website.

It has also claimed it takes data protection very seriously after another Freedom of Information request was leaked.

The 2016 Freedom of Information Act gives members of the public access to information from government departments but now many responses to queries that had been displayed on the government’s Freedom of Information website have been removed.

This includes requests for information relating to part public funded bodies such as Manx Radio, which receives a yearly government subvention to support its operation. Despite being asked, the government has not said why this was done.

Manx Radio director Anthony Pugh said: ’Anyone approaching us with a Freedom of Information request would get a response but we can’t access the Cabinet Office web site and past responses to Freedom of Information requests were taken down,’ he said.

’It’s obviously a government decision on what is appropriate, not a Manx Radio decision.’

A government spokesman said: ’While the Isle of Man Government chooses to publish FOI responses it is not a legal requirement, but we do encourage all public authorities to follow this approach.’

Policy and Reform Minister Chris Thomas MHK has said it is up to individual companies to display the information on their web sites but they are not obliged to do so.

He said it would be for each body to decide how and where the information was displayed.

The Freedom of Information Act came into effect in February, 2016 and, at the time, the then Chief Minister, Allan Bell, MHK, said: ’The first of February 2016 will see a significant enhancement of democracy in the Isle of Man. For the first time residents will be able to exercise a legal right to be given information held by public authorities.’

The remit of the act was extended in stages over the following two years.

In a separate incident, MTTV journalist Paul Moulton told Isle of Man Newspapers a request for information he made had been inadvertently circulated to numerous other recipients.

’It has been reported as a breach and I now have a letter of apology,’ he said.

A government statement said: ’The Isle of Man Government takes the protection of data very seriously and when made aware of the problem with the online form, immediate action was taken, and the incident reported to the Information Commissioner. We are sorry that this happened and have issued an apology to the person involved.’