The use of secondary email accounts by Alberta cabinet ministers will be the focus of a widespread probe announced Tuesday by the province's Information and Privacy Commissioner.

Commissioner Frank Work plans to look at how often cabinet ministers use secondary email accounts as well as examine the rules and policies that apply to ministerial emails.

Alberta Information and Privacy Commissioner Frank Work will probe email practices and policies for provincial cabinet ministers. CBC

The investigation will also make recommendations to ensure policies and practices adhere to the province's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Work will release a report to the public once his investigation wraps up.

The probe is not "an offence or breach investigation," a news release said. "Rather, the Commissioner wishes to establish clear guidelines respecting the treatment of ministerial emails under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act."

The investigation, announced Tuesday, is separate from the probe launched on Sept. 8 which is examining Ted Morton's use of a secondary email account while he was a cabinet minister as well as the shredding of documents after he left office.

Emails leaked to CBC News last summer show Morton used the name Frederick Lee - his actual first and middle names - as an official government email address while he was minister of Sustainable Resource Development (SRD).

The use of this address would make it difficult for anyone to obtain emails about government business through a freedom of information request.

The news investigation also unearthed an April 2011 email from Morton's former executive assistant which stated that staff shredded all documents when Morton resigned from cabinet.

Morton has denied doing anything wrong.

Statements by other cabinet ministers that they, too, had a second email led Work to express concerns last month that the practice was more widespread.