Market researcher NOP for SurfControl has carried out the first national e-mail ethics survey in the UK. NOP, an e-mail and Internet content manager group, targeted white-collar workers in London, Manchester, Cardiff, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, and Newcastle. The survey revealed up to one third of workers use email to send racist, sexist or pornographic mail.

“E-mail can be a real and substantial liability for business…it is a form of communication that seems to tempt people into making informal and unguarded statements that they would not write in hard copy” says Stephen Ollerenshaw, an IT lawyer at Wragge & Co.

London and Manchester are the worst offending cities however the problem appears to spread across the country. The survey revealed that up to 38% of workers surveyed admitted to using email to create problems for colleagues.

Steve Purdham CEO for SunControl commented on the findings stating “It is clear that there needs to be a real change in the e-mail culture within the UK – starting with businesses educating employees that e-mail is not a guise to get away with unacceptable behaviour nor a device for political purposes”.