Civil servants 'paid to play Grand Theft Auto' to learn about 'lived experience'
It is understood that civil servants spoke to them about the players' experience while taking part in GTA missions
Civil servants have been paid to play the video game Grand Theft Auto online with the public as part of government research.
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Online focus groups on the platform were launched by members of an experimental policy-making team at the Department for Education (DfE) to "create an emotionally safe space".
The game, an 18 plus, was deployed by the government in 2024 as part of an attempt to learn about the "lived experience" of the public.
GTA, made by American company Rockstar, frequently depicts violence and involves shooting, driving fast cars and evading the police.
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The experiment was overseen by Policy Lab, a small unit at the heart of Whitehall tasked with policymaking schemes, The Telegraph reports.
A government blog revealed that civil servants "spent time with participants in video games they played regularly" and "experienced the world".
It is understood that the civil servants joined the game's players online and spoke to them about their experience while taking part in GTA missions.
A Whitehall source told the newspaper: "This sort of nonsense is exactly the kind of Tory hangover this Government wants to root out.
"Ministers did not sign off these projects and don’t want to see taxpayers’ money wasted on video games when there are bigger problems the public care about."
A Government source said: "This is a decades old Tory initiative that we are now looking into."
According to a civil service blog post, the workshop was designed to "encourage participants to step outside standard responses and explore the emotional and contextual dimensions of learning".