Third of Civil Service still work at home despite Rees-mogg call
MORE THAN a third of Whitehall civil servants are still working from home, two months after Jacob Rees-mogg ordered staff to return to the office and some four months after the requirement to work from home was scrapped.
Data revealed by the Cabinet Office shows that as of two weeks ago an average of 61 per cent of staff across departments were at their desks in Whitehall.
Mr Rees-mogg, the Government’s efficiency minister, wrote in April to tell all secretaries of state to get their departments back to “full capacity”.
Despite the cost of living crisis facing families in the UK, only around half of civil servants in the Treasury, HM Revenue & Customs and the Department for Work and Pensions were back at their London HQS, according to data for the week starting June 13.
Mr Rees-mogg’s own department, the Cabinet Office, was one of the top five performing departments, with almost three quarters of staff coming in. None of the 19 departments where data was collected achieved the “full occupancy” asked for by Mr Rees-mogg – the Ministry of Defence (MOD) came highest with 82 per cent.
At the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) only 38 per cent were at their desks, a modest 12 percentage point increase from April.
A spokesman said: “The FCDO is a global organisation and our staff pursue the UK’S interests abroad. They work away from the office more regularly than other departments, including [having] to travel for diplomatic business and supporting ministerial visits overseas.”
The disruption seen by last week’s rail and Tube strikes saw thousands of civil servants go back to working from home, with the number of people at their desks in Whitehall almost halving compared with the week before. Analysis conducted by The Daily Telegraph of current open job adverts in the Civil Service found several posts listed home-working as one of the benefits.
“Currently, it is anticipated attendance in the office will be very occasionally required, depending on wider team meetings and events that require face to face attendance”, stipulates one Londonbased job advert for a £45,000-a-year role in the Intellectual Property Office.
A Government spokesperson said: “These statistics show that the number of civil servants working from offices is increasing. But there is more to do; the Prime Minister and Cabinet Secretary have been clear they want to see office attendance across the Civil Service consistently back at pre-pandemic levels.”