A CIVIL servant at Westminster has spent hours at work updating Wikipedia entries on Scottish football teams and players, it has emerged.
A computer programme that monitors the IP addresses of contributors to the online encyclopedia has revealed that changes to some teams and players pages were all made from within the offices of a UK government department.
So far, the identity of the fan has not been revealed, but whoever it is is responsible for more than 40 edits made in the last week alone.
Among the changes uncovered by the monitor 'bot', were alterations to the page devoted to the Dunfermline Athletic squad and individual players' goal tallies.
The second-largest number of Wikipedia edits were related to Dundee United player Nadir �iftçi.
Government offices at Whitehall include the Cabinet Office, Foreign and Commonwealth department, and the Scotland Office, collectively employing around 1,800 people.
The @WhitehallEdits Twitter 'bot', set up by Channel 4 News in August 2014, automatically tweets about any anonymous changes made by people using Whitehall-associated Internet protocol addresses.
The edits were not made from a single IP address, meaning the individual computer of the unknown civil servant cannot be easily identified.
Some of the more recent revisions include: the number of goals scored by Berwick Rangers' defender Ross Drummond; the signing of Jim Paterson by Dunfermline Athletic, and changes to the Montrose squad.
Dunfermline Athletic general manager David McMorrine said that the information posted about the club was accurate but they had no idea who was doing it.
He said: "As taxpayers we're concerned if that's the best thing our civil servants can find to do."
Many of the revisions were made around the lunch hour but the bulk of them were made in the middle of the work day between 10am and 11:00am, and 2pm and 3pm.
The majority of changes bookend the work week, with 23 falling on Mondays, 23 on Tuesdays, and 47 on Thursdays.
Civil servants clearly have recently been warned to curb their online activies with regards to Wikipedia, with a document circulated that said "care should be taken when editing collaboratively edited websites such as Wikipedia".
The report warns that "posts can be linked back to government IP addresses.
"Anyone found to be making inappropriate edits will be disciplined which could lead to dismissal."
A spokesman for the UK government declined to say whether any efforts had been made to identify the individual.
He added: "Civil servants are required to follow the Civil Service Code when working online."
ends
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