[eli]

I think it's a mistake to assume anything malicious or untoward took place. A /8 is quite a lot of addresses, but at one point it was assumed a) the total pool of addresses would last a very very long time and b) that every network connected device would have a publicly routable IP.

[pascalmemories]

I wasn't suggesting anything malicious. [edit: OK, perhaps I should have suggested someone's name had to go on the allocation record and DWP would look most benign. My recollection is the allocation was once listed as being NHS but that may be due to one too many whiskies and/or conflating another allocation.]

I was suggesting it was a throwback to the very early days of the internet expansion when people had a much simpler understanding of how it would all work and were excited to get involved. I think there are some enlightening stories to be told from various UK governmental departments which are not normally the source of such forward thinking.