Important changes to the way that secure emails are sent
From September 2021, Wigan Council now use Microsoft’s Office 365 Message Encryption (OME) process for sending sensitive information over email.
Further guidance can be found within Microsoft's official guidance on OME.
As this new process works with other Microsoft Office 365 tools that the council already uses, email encryption and sharing documents will become much easier and more secure.
To ‘decrypt’ and open a secure email that the council send, you will firstly need to enable your access to the email by following a one-time activation process with Microsoft or you can register with a Google account to open the email.
More information about this activation process and how to decrypt and open a secure email, is explained in the easy to use step by step guide.
If using a mobile device, accessing the outlook mail app for your device is a good way to work with OME.
View Microsoft's additional information about opening OME Encrypted emails.
How you'll know that an email is from us
We will only ever contact you from a Wigan Council email address ending “@wigan.gov.uk”.