The UK government is likely to approve more smartphones for access to sensitive documents by government employees, breaking the monopoly currently held by BlackBerry's in the Civil Service.

Currently, documents are classified in three grades, and only BlackBerry handsets are rated for the highest classification. However, according to plans seen by Computer Weekly, the three grades are to be combined into one single standard, which then opens up opportunities for civil servants to use alternative mobile devices to access the documents.

According to the policy plan, the changes are being driven in part by the desire to open up remote access to government files to a wider range of smartphones. The government has a general policy of widening its supplier base to help drive down costs by not being dependent on single monopoly suppliers in IT services.

Apple's iPhone is rated for accessing some documents remotely, but not the most sensitive highest classification files.

The changes are not expected to come into effect until next year.