Civil servants ignoring ‘back to office’ orders

Whitehall almost empty as senior officials fear another Government reversal with second wave of Covid-19

‘Senior civil servants are hedging their bets because they think there will be another spike’

Gordon Rayner

SENIOR civil servants are telling Whitehall staff not to return to the office because the Government will reverse its back-to-work stance in the face of a second peak of Covid-19.

Ministers hope the reopening of all schools this week will herald a widespread return to workplaces, but they have failed to persuade staff in their own departments to end home working.

Only a handful of staff are physically present in many Whitehall buildings designed for thousands of people, and ministers are encountering huge resistance from their staff.

One minister said: “We told the staff weeks ago that they needed to come back to the office so we could lead by example, but it hasn’t happened.

“Senior officials are saying that they think there will be another outbreak and that the Government’s messaging will change back to ‘work from home’, so they are telling the civil servants not to bother coming in. No one believes what they are being told and the senior civil servants are hedging their bets because they think there will be another spike.

“The inconsistent messaging coming out of No10 hasn’t helped.”

The minister added: “The Government needs to come up with a stronger plan to persuade people to go back to their workplaces to save the economy. At the moment the only plan seems to be waiting to see what happens when the schools go back and when the furlough scheme ends in November.”

In recent days ministers have also watered down the Government’s message about going back to work amid concerns about rising infection rates in some areas of the country.

Boris Johnson’s message of “go back to work if you can”, which he began telling the nation in early July, has been dropped, and instead ministers are telling the public to “go back to work if you need to”.

Stephen Barclay, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said yesterday that ministers were keen for people to go back to the office.

He said: “We think that’s best for the economy to get back to normal as part of our recovery.”

An AA survey has shown that 40 per cent of people who normally drove to work before the pandemic were now working from home all or part of the time. This rose to 54 per cent for senior or middle managers and professionals.

The outsourcing firm Capita, one of the Government’s biggest contractors, has announced plans to close up to 100 of its offices in a permanent shift towards home working. Capita, which collects the BBC licence fee, among other contracts it holds, made the move to satisfy the demands of staff who have said they want to carry on working from home for good.

Sir Stuart Rose, the chairman of Ocado and the former boss of Marks and Spencer, said that unless the Government could persuade people to return to the office then “UK plc faces going bust”. He also said young workers would not progress in their jobs if they could not work alongside experienced colleagues and learn from them.

He suggested there should be “consequences” for people unwilling to return, such as a reduction in salary.