Defra accidentally redirects users looking for information about bees to the website for an escort service

• Government webpage offering advice on helping bees redirected to adult site 
• Instead of helping pollinating insects readers were sent to escort services page 
• Link was for Bees Needs campaign, which had been taken over by the adult site
• Adult page claimed to be ‘The Alternative To Escorts’ and to ‘Get Laid For Free!’

A government webpage giving advice about bees has been inadvertently directing members of the public to an escort site.

The Bees’ Needs campaign from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) offers advice on how to help pollinating insects, such as planting ‘bee-friendly flowers’.

But under the ‘find out more’ section of the page users were directed to an external website which lists hundreds of UK addresses, all of which then take the user to an escort service website.

The online advice launched in July 2014 by the then environment minister Lord de Mauley, gives tips on how to help boost bee populations in gardens and meadows around Britain.

Members of the public looking for helpful tips for encouraging bees were directed to an adult site offering ways to ‘get laid for free’ 

Instead of advice about bees web users on the Defra page were sent to a page about escort services 

But instead of pollination tips, readers found a link to a website offering escort services.

‘The Alternative To Escorts’, reads the website tagline, along with slogans such as, ‘Get Laid For Free! Sex does not have to be complicated’.

The original domain name for the Bees’ Needs campaign is now used by the adult website. 

It is not known for how long the link has been sending web users to the sex page.  

Defra says the link on the Bees’ Needs website was correct at the time of publication five years ago but the owner of the domain name had since changed.

The department has now updated the information after they were alerted to the issue.

After being contacted about the issue, Defra insisted the Bees Needs website was never a government page.

The Defra page for the Bees Needs campaign, the domain of which taken over by an adult site

Defra said the Bees Needs page was never a government site and was correct at the time of publication in 2014

A spokesman said: ‘We are working hard to support our bees and other pollinators – as these species are essential for pollinating crops and in turn human survival.

‘Our Biodiversity and National Pollinator strategies have helped to create over 130,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat and our 25 Year Environment Plan will develop a Nature Recovery Network to protect and restore wildlife.

‘Furthermore the Bees’ Needs campaign brings together conservation groups, farmers, beekeepers to promote good practical advice so we can all do more to provide suitable habitats for bees and other insects.’

Adam White, a user of the page who spotted the problem, claimed the error showed the government did not take the threat to pollinators seriously. 

He told the Guardian: ‘It’s disturbing to think people such as myself, who are sincerely trying to help pollinators, are not being directed to the correct site. 

The original Bees’ Needs press release was posted by Defra and former undersecretary for the department Lord de Mauley.

The website now asks users to search for the Bees’ Needs site, which is run by the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

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