Council workers are given advice on how to eat biscuits safely in the latest example of health and safety rules taken too far. One council has even claimed to have supervised tea breaks for safety reasons. The tea and biscuit policies were disclosed in a survey about accidents caused by biscuits which was sent out as a joke by a biscuit company.

The fictitious 'British Biscuit Advisory Board' was created as part of a £3m marketing campaign by Fox's biscuits. National televison advertisements and billboards highlighted its campaign to 'educate the public about responsible biscuit choices and promote safer biscuit eating practices'.

A spoof 'workplace biscuit risk assessment test' - written in bureaucratic Health and Safety language - was created and issued to 5,849 council workers across the UK. A total of 813 over-cautious council employees clicked through to the online survey and 437 worried workers actually took the time to complete it.

If it were down to me & mores the shame it isn't , this morning we would be making an additional 813 public sector job cuts. Clearly these people have nothing better to do