More than one in three civil servants still working from home

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.

Data revealed by the Cabinet Office showed that an average of 61 per cent of staff across Whitehall departments were at their desks in as of two weeks ago.

Mr Rees-Mogg, the Government’s efficiency minister, wrote to all secretaries of state to get their departments back to “full capacity” in April.

At the time, as few as a quarter of staff in departments such as the Foreign Office were back, more than four months after Boris Johnson scrapped the requirement to work from home.

A government spokesman admitted there was “more to do” to get departments back to their pre-pandemic levels.

In the week commencing June 13, several had less than half of their staff on average attending their main headquarters.

Only 38 per cent of Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office civil servants were at their desks – an increase of 12 per cent from April.

It comes after Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, rejected calls from Number 10 for her department to cut its staff, instead asking for 1,000 more civil servants to work across Whitehall.

An FCDO spokesman said: “The FCDO is a global organisation and our staff pursue the UK’s interests abroad.

“To do this effectively, they work away from the office more regularly than other departments, including to travel for diplomatic business and supporting ministerial visits overseas.”

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) also had less than half of its staff in the office that week.

Some parts of Whitehall have responded much more slowly to Mr Rees-Mogg’s demand to stop working from home, with the Scotland Office’s occupancy dropping by two per cent since April.

The departments for business, education and pensions all remained at around half their occupancy rate, according to June’s data.

The widespread disruption from last week’s rail and tube strikes caused thousands of civil servants to work from home, with Cabinet Office data showing the number of people at their desks in Whitehall almost halved compared to the week before.

Around only one in five FCDO and Defra staff managed to make their way into their offices.

Before Mr Rees-Mogg’s ultimatum, around a quarter of Department for Education staff had returned to its headquarters. In recent weeks, numbers have soared to as high as 79 per cent, before dropping to around half following the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

Telegraph analysis of current open job adverts in the Civil Service found that several listed home working as one of the benefits, with the amount of time to be spent in the office kept vague and to be agreed in discussion with line managers.

“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,” an advert for a £45,000-a-year role in the Intellectual Property Office said.

Another listing, for a Department for Work and Pensions job with a £65,000 salary, said: “The number of days that anyone will be able to work at home will be determined primarily by business need, but personal circumstances and other relevant circumstances will also be taken into account.”

An advert for a £40,000-a-year role in the Ministry of Defence said the department “promotes hybrid working, enabling you to work partly in the workplace and partly from home”.

The government spokesman said: “These statistics show that the number of civil servants working from offices is increasing across Whitehall.

“However, there is more to do and 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.”