Officials from the Dutch public prosecutions department made 1,136 requests for information to Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo in the first six months of last year, the Financieele Dagblad said on Friday.

That is double the number of requests made during the same period three years ago, the FD said.

The figures, based on the companies own reports, show that Apple is prepared to cooperate with fewer requests than previously and that Yahoo has ignored all requests for information.

Apple now cooperates with 36% of requests for information, compared with 66% three years ago. By contrast, Facebook, which used to honour one in three requests, now provides information in 87% of cases.

A spokesman for the department told the paper most requests were about identifying who is behind an email address or where an email had been sent from. The requests are related to a wide range of criminal investigations, from terrorism to theft, the paper said.

It is up to companies themselves whether or not to comply with the requests.