In 2010, Rob Evans, a journalist for The Guardian newspaper, applied under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to see copies of correspondence between Charles and ministers in seven government departments. The government refused to grant the request. The ministerial recipients of the letters and the dates which they were received were also deemed to be secret by the government. The 27 letters concerned were written between September 2004 and April 2005. The Guardians challenge was the first of its kind to attempt to obtain royal correspondence.
