The iPhone is not welcome in Whitehall due to its lack of recognition by the Government's secure communications department.
The Communications Electronics Security Group (CESG) part of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) is responsible for "enabling secure and trusted knowledge sharing" within Government departments.
However, the only mobile device it recognises to uphold its security standards is Research in Motion's (RIM) BlackBerry handsets.
Junior health minister Simon Burns confirmed on the iPhone was forbidden on Monday, following inquiries by Labour MP Tom Watson as to what phones Governmental employees used.
Burns said in a statement: "The only mobile telecoms or personal digital assistant devices that have been issued to Ministers of the Department are BlackBerry devices."
He added: "The Department does not issue Apple iPhones to staff as these are not approved for Government use by the CESG."
However, a spokesperson from the CESG told IT PRO it would only approve devices submitted to the department and, as of yet, the iPhone had not been on this list.
The question mark over Apple's iPhone security comes less than two weeks after the announcement of its next generation handset the iPhone 4 and after an iPad data breach which exposed email addresses of more than 100,000 users to hackers.
We contacted Apple for comment on the ban but it had not responded to our request at the time of publication.
