The media - and anyone who tried to access the 1901 Census Web site in January 2002 - is to blame for the site going titsup for nine months.

That's according to a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) which found that the Public Record Office (PRO) had only planned a "low key" launch of the site. Unfortunately, "press coverage" led to "overwhelming" demand, which swamped the site.

"However, press coverage on the day the website was launched was more extensive than expected and resulted in overwhelming demand.

"By noon on the launch day, 2 January 2002, 1.2 million users an hour were attempting to access the site, which had been designed to cope with a peak of 1.2 million users in a 24 hour period," it said.

The site - which provides details of the 1901 census in England and Wales - was pulled on January 7 2002. It finally began providing unrestricted access in November 2002. ®

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