County Hall managers have received 131 applications from employees and members seeking to work for the authority while based out of the country, of which 111 were accepted.

In total, they have worked from 33 different countries, including Australia, Spain, Greece and Mauritius.

A beach in Mauritius (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

The findings, obtained using the Freedom of Information Act, have raised eyebrows among Norfolk County Council's Reform leaders, who have been reviewing the authority's widespread working from home policy.

Scott Hussey, a Reform cabinet member, said: "Norfolk County Council (NCC) is not the United Nations and taxpayers would reasonably expect council staff to at least be working in the same time zone."

However, officials at the authority say the figures also include staff who apply to receive work emails when travelling abroad on holiday, as well as those who are actually working full time while based overseas.

The sea in Indonesia (Image: Stockvault.net)

They declined to give a further breakdown of the figures saying it was not possible to do so.

Council policy allows staff to work abroad for up to 90 days.

The numbers of employees among the authority's 7,000 workforce seeking........

© Norwich Evening News