Home Office staff ‘working at home like they are in lockdown’

MORE Home Office civil servants are working from home than before the Government’s post-covid crackdown, new data has revealed.

Just half of desks in the Home Office’s Westminster headquarters were occupied in the last week of June, compared with 61 per cent back in February.

On average, 46 per cent of desks have been occupied in that time, despite calls from Jacob Rees-mogg for civil servants to return to work after the pandemic.

The Cabinet Office minister has also threatened departments with eviction if they do not use the desk space available to them by bringing civil servants back to work.

A Whitehall source said the Home Office had been “dreadful” at returning to work after Covid.

Priti Patel’s department is one of just three ministries that had a lower occupancy rate in the latest figures than back in February.

The others – the Cabinet Office and Department for International Trade were operating at more than 80 per cent capacity before the work from home crackdown began.

The source added: “With backlogs unresolved and public services underperforming, officials who are refusing to go into work as they are expected to are taking taxpayers for a ride.”

Mr Rees-mogg launched a war on work from home after taking office in the last reshuffle in February.

Shortly afterwards, senior mandarins were ordered to publish figures on how full their offices were in an attempt to name and shame departments that allowed staff to work remotely.

Mr Rees-mogg has also said he plans to reduce the total civil service headcount by 90,000, including by scrapping the civil service’s fast stream programme for graduates.

The latest data on occupancy shows almost all departments have brought more staff back to work since the beginning of the crackdown.

The Department for Work and Pensions has increased its office occupancy from 32 per cent at the beginning of February to 56 per cent at the end of June.

The Business Department was 59 per cent full by the end of June, compared to 27 per cent earlier this year.

The data also shows the impact of last month’s rail strikes, with all departments seeing a dramatic fall in the number of staff working from the office while trains and the London Underground were brought to a standstill by industrial action by the RMT.

The Treasury’s headquarters on Horse Guards was just 44 per cent full in the week of the strikes, compared with 67 per cent the week after.

In April, Mr Rees-mogg visited a “completely empty” office in one government department and left a note for civil servants who were working from home. It said: “Sorry you were out when I visited. I look forward to seeing you in the office very soon.”

Helen Morgan, a Liberal Democrat MP, said the note was a “pointless nasty gesture,” but other MPS welcomed the attempt to bring civil servants back to the office. A Home Office spokesperson said: “Roles where it is appropriate to do so have the option of flexible working.”