The survey was carried out by Easyresearch/Questback on behalf of Tork and 2,500 Europeans were asked about their toilet habits at the workplace. The British come top with regard to washing their hands after using the toilet with 89 per cent saying they always do so and 10 per cent claiming they usually do.

"Good hand hygiene is crucial if you want to stay healthy," says Rolf Andersson, hygiene expert at SCA. "If you have bacteria on your hands this can easily be transferred to your mouth. In the toilet there are often a lot of bacteria on the flush mechanism, light switch, taps and door handle."

The survey also showed that 35 per cent of UK people often think the toilet at work appears dirty. Only 21 per cent say it always seems clean while 12 per cent rarely or never use the toilet at work, preferring to wait until they are home or to use a toilet outside the workplace instead.

And if the toilet is dirty, most people will tell their colleagues. Only eight per cent will not comment on it compared with 54 per cent who have no problem in doing so.

For the British, top toilet priorities are that it should be clean and smell fresh; have a liquid soap dispenser, offer paper towels for hand drying and that it should be separated off. It is not considered important for the toilet to have modern equipment or offer hygienic protection for the toilet seat.

The survey also revealed that 25 per cent of UK people are afraid of catching a disease when using the toilet at work.

A total of 2,500 people from Finland, Belgium, Germany, the UK, France, Poland and Sweden were questioned in the Tork survey. The 270 UK respondents were aged between 20 and 64 with an equal gender distribution.