Facebook banned by council after staff spent 572 hours networking

Portsmouth City Council has banned staff from using Facebook during office hours after they clocked up 572 hours – the equivalent of 71 working days – on the site in one month.

The council’s internet usage rules allowed all 4,500 staff to access the social networking site during lunch breaks and after work, but now council employees will have to justify needing access to the site.

Council chief executive David Williams told The Daily Telegraph: “We intend to restrict internet access to social networking sites more than at present for non-business use.

“Any member of staff may, under this revised policy, make a business case to have these sites unblocked.”

A spokesman for the Taxpayers’ Alliance, added: “It is a huge amount of work time, and therefore money being wasted – 71 days lost in just one month is a shocking figure and it is only right that the site should now be totally banned.”