The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has inadvertently been sending members of the public looking for advice on encouraging pollinators to a website advertising escort services.

The Bees’ Needs campaign, launched in 2014 by the then environment minister Lord de Mauley, called on the public to do more to help insect pollinators by growing more nectar-rich flowers, leaving patches of land to grow wild and cutting grass less often.

However, the site now displays a list of hundreds of British neighbourhoods, all of which link to a site offering “independent escorts”.

It is unclear when the domain was taken over by the escort site, but the website was being cited in parliament as late as September 2015, when the then environment minister Rory Stewart highlighted the call to action in a written answer. Stewart described the campaign as providing a “simple message on the essential needs of pollinators and how to fulfil them”.

The government removed the link on Wednesday, when the Guardian informed Defra of the situation,although readers are still told to visit the site, which is also prominently mentioned in other government advice on supporting pollinators.

The mistake has concerned those seeking advice on how to help hives in their local area. A Guardian reader, Adam White, who spotted the error, said: “It’s disturbing to think people such as myself, who are sincerely trying to help pollinators, are not being directed to the correct site.

“It shows the government is not taking seriously the threat of loss of pollinators.”

A Defra spokesperson said that conclusion was “a leap, considering the amount of work we are doing around pollinators, and far more recently than five years ago”.

In December 2018, the government published the latest version of the national pollinator strategy implementation plan, detailing the next three years of the strategy.

According to that document, success for the strategy would involve people “in every county … accessing Bees’ Needs”, where the government promised to “regularly share best practice”.

Defra said: “We are working hard to support our bees and other pollinators – as these species are essential for pollinating crops and in turn human survival.

“Our biodiversity and national pollinator strategies have helped to create over 130,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat and our 25-year environment plan will develop a nature recovery network to protect and restore wildlife.

“Furthermore the Bees’ Needs campaign brings together conservation groups, farmers, beekeepers to promote good practical advice so we can all do more to provide suitable habitats for bees and other insects.”