MORE than 24,000 attempts to access online porn were made from the UK Parliament in just four months last year.
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request made by the Press Association shows there was an average of 160 requests made a day from computers and other devices connected to the parliamentary network between June and October 2016.
The figure of 24,473 requests breaks down to nine searches every hour – with 9,467 requests alone being made from both the Houses of Lords and Commons in September.
All the devices are used by MPs, peers and staff at the Houses of Parliament in Westminster.
Parliamentary authorities say the majority of attempts were not deliberate.
"All pornographic websites are blocked by Parliament's computer network,” a parliamentary spokesman said.
"The vast majority of 'attempts' to access them are not deliberate. The data shows 'requests' to access websites, not visits to them.
"There are 8,500 computers on the parliamentary network, which are used by MPs, peers, their staff and staff of both Houses.
"This data also covers personal devices used when logged on to Parliament's guest Wi-Fi."
The news comes after disgraced former Deputy Prime Minister Damian Green allegedly lied to police about accessing porn on his parliamentary computer in 2008.
Mr Green, who was sacked by Theresa May over the recent sex harassment scandal at Westminster, continued to deny “unfounded and deeply hurtful” claims he downloaded or viewed porn at work in his resignation letter.
Though the figures are certainly startling, they represent a sharp fall in the number of attempts made to access pornographic material in recent years.
In 2016, parliament’s filtering system blocked 113,208 attempts – down from 213,020 the previous year.
