Government doesn't do 'off the record' in the way she thinks. Emails, calendar entries in senior people's diaries, meetings: if she thinks it's 'off the record' it isn't. FOI requests usually result in an instruction going to staff
![Red triangle pointed up :small_red_triangle: 🔺](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/joypixels/emoji-assets@5.0/png/64/1f53a.png)
to search their inboxes/calendars etc for, in this case, 'Jack Monroe' - they're required to turn in any results and the FOI team will decide what is releasable. MAYBE she thinks WhatsApping a director or director general level contact (SCS2 and SCS3) is off the record but I believe many Departments do advise staff that WhatsApp messages from official devices are also fair game under FOI.
I don't see a high flying civil servant at the ONS or anywhere else in Whitehall hiding the fact she's been softly, gently speaking to them on numerous occasions over many months. Why would they. Ergo, it's bollocks!