UK Civil Servants Favorite Websites: Bellydancing and Medieval Role Play

Belly Dancing And Medieval Role Play Favourite Sites Among Civil Servants

Belly dancing, medieval role play and Doctor Who are just some of the most visited websites civil servants browse while at work, according to the Taxpayers' Alliance.

From bizarre to the mundane, the web habits of the "Yes, Minister" crowd truly vary. The most random include rating your MP's attractiveness to EtiquetteHell.com, a forum for polite people to rant about their uncivilized counterparts.

Not surprisingly, the BBC, Google and Facebook were among the most popular sites.

The information was obtained by TayPayers Alliance through the Freedom of Information Act, on the Department for Transport's (DfT) top 1000 sites visited from January to the end of May 2011.

Matthew Sinclair, Director of the TaxPayers' Alliance, the organisation which obtained the figures, said he requested information from all government departments, but the DfT was the only one to come forward with internet history data.

"While many staff work very hard, there have been enough anecdotal reports of time-wasters within the civil service that it is vital taxpayers are able to scrutinise how time they are paying for is spent."

The DfT was asked whether it could also reveal the amount of time spent on each website, but it said it did not keep accurate figures. Instead, only the number of hits were revealed.

"Our internet access policy states that personal use of the internet by staff should be kept as short as possible and should not in any event exceed one hour each day made in their own time, e.g. meal breaks," a DfT spokesman told the BBC.

Close

What's Hot