Prime minister Dick Schoof has banned ministers from taking their telephones and other electronic devices to official meetings on security grounds, the AD reported on Friday.

Phones, laptops and smart watches have to be placed in a special locker outside the main meeting room, the AD said. It is unclear why Schoof has taken this action but the risk that outsiders hack in and listen to the discussions could be the reason, the paper said.

During the previous cabinet, phones had to be handed in during discussions on specific security-related issues but not as a general rule.

School was director of the Dutch secret service AIVD between 2018 and 2020 and last year the service said the risk of espionage in the Netherlands was “real and urgent”.

Since last year, civil servants have been banned from having certain apps, such as TikTok and WeChat on their phones because of security fears.

Schoof told broadcasters ahead of Friday’s cabinet meeting that the measure is a “perfectly natural” one.

All electronic devices are all microphones and other countries are interested in the Netherlands’ decision-making process, he said. Asked why the previous cabinet had not done so, Schoof said that he maybe had a bit more experience with that kind of thing,” in reference to his security service role.

“I do organise regular short breaks so everyone can have a moment to check their phones,” he said. “But even the most persistent junkies actually like having their phone put away for a while.”