Assaults, threatening behaviour, bullying, fraud, and ‘serious incapability due to drugs or alcohol’ were among the 309 reported cases of misconduct by Surrey County Council staff over the past five years.

The alleged offences, which also included sleeping on the job, theft, financial irregularities and working elsewhere while off sick, resulted in disciplinary action in all but 30 cases, according to information obtained by this website under the Freedom of Information Act.

Surrey County Council declined to comment on individual cases but said: "We take any disciplinary matters very seriously and have robust procedures in place to deal with these.

"We always expect high standards of conduct, behaviour and performance from all our employees."

The TaxPayers' Alliance suggested a review of Surrey County Council's recruitment process should be considered.

Chief executive Jonathan Isaby said: "This is quite a large number of complaints against council officials.

"Taxpayers will be questioning if the recruitment process could not be more robust in order to avoid the expense and embarrassment of having quite so many questionable characters on the payroll."

The worst 12 months for Surrey County Council came between April 2011 and 2012, and saw 81 incidents reported to human resources including drug possession and ‘bringing the council’s reputation into disrepute’.

The same period saw 71 disciplinary actions, ranging from formal warnings to summary dismissals, of which there were 18.

The final complete year - from April 2014 until April 2015 - saw the fewest allegations of wrongdoings by staff members by far, with only 35 among the 30,000-strong staff.

The number of reported incidents fell by over half from 71 in the previous year - although that year still saw dismissals and resignations as a result.