'Seriously misleading!' Civil service 'covering up how many staff are actually working from home'

The Civil Service has been accused of covering up how many staff are really working from home.

Departments in Whitehall insist offices are fully-staffed - claiming occupancy levels of up to 100 per cent.

But critics have said civil servants are still clocking in remotely and have accused the Government of "gaming the system", with experts pointing to data which focuses on the number of desks in a departmental HQ, rather than the proportion of the workforce in the office.

The occupancy level refers to the number of desks in a building, but as there are many more staff than desks, a department can claim 100 per cent attendance even if a significant portion of employees have not left their home.

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Since 2024, the Government has mandated civil servants spend at least 60 per cent of their time in public buildings or on official business.

Ed Miliband's Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) hit 100 per cent occupancy in both February and March of this year.

In October 2024, DESNZ said its office had 571 desks for its 2,969 staff.

The level of working from home has been highlighted by a new think tank which aims to harness the private sector to improve the "incompetent" British state.

The Centre for Government Reform is led by Ameer Kotecha, a former British diplomat, and is co-chaired by Tory peers Lord Nash and Lord Agnew.

Mr Kotecha told The Telegraph: "These figures are an illustration of the Civil Service's relationship with accountability: the appearance of compliance, with none of the substance.

"Claiming 100 per cent office occupancy when there are only enough desks for half the workforce isn’t a rounding error: it's seriously misleading."

Mr Kotecha has previously highlighted the issue of office attendance to GB News.

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In March, he told The People's Channel: "There's an endemic work from home culture which seems to be stuck.

"Civil servants are only required to come in 60 per cent of the time, right? That's three days a week. And even that, in many cases, they're not doing… That there is a problem."

The Public and Commercial Services Union, which represents civil servants, called for the 60 per cent requirement to be scrapped in March, citing rising fuel costs caused by the Iran war.

In 2024, DESNZ said staff shared workspaces with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) in all locations except for its London HQ and the Old Admiralty Building in Whitehall.

A Government spokesman said: "DESNZ and DSIT operate a 40-60 per cent minimum requirement to work from the office, based on estate capacity.

"DESNZ has one of the highest office occupancy rates, averaging 96 per cent between January and March this year, with DSIT averaging 79 per cent over the same period."

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: "We have always been clear that these statistics refer to building occupancy, which is what these figures accurately show.

"Many staff across the Civil Service also work in offices outside of Whitehall, and on any given working day, a certain proportion of the workforce will be out conducting in-person work at a location away from their usual office space."

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