Deskless civil servants told to go home again

CIVIL servants who returned to the office were told to go home because there was not enough space for them in the building.

Staff at the Department for Education (DFE) have had to work in communal areas after running out of desks following the back-to-work edict.

Some employees were even sent home from the Dfe’s Sheffield office, according to the magazine Schools Week.

Susan Acland-hood, the department’s permanent secretary, recently told civil servants they should be in the office 80 per cent of the time. This led to employees “piling in”, meaning there was not sufficient desk space to accommodate them all, a DFE insider said.

It comes amid a crackdown on Whitehall officials continuing to work at home, led by Jacob Rees-mogg, the Cabinet minister in charge of government efficiency.

Last month he sent ministers a league table, which showed how many employees from each Whitehall department were going into the office on an average day during the week beginning April 4.

The Department for Education fared worst, with 25 per cent of staff going in each day on average while the rest worked remotely.