A sizable number of civil servants are still spending fewer than two days a week in the office, despite the rules that require them to be at the office at least 60 per cent of the time.  

Senior mandarins have claimed that officials are meeting the target – publishing figures showing that departments have a monthly staff occupancy rate of 60 to 100 per cent. However, the government departments in question do not even have enough desk space for all the civil servants they employ – calling into question the validity of those figures.  

New analysis by the think tank Centre for Government Reform reveals that the true staff occupancy rate is far lower, with some civil servants spending as little as one and a half days a week in the office. The only department to have hit the 60 per cent target was the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) which has now been abolished by Andy Burnham.  

Ameer Kotecha, chief executive of the Centre for Government Reform, said ministers needed to “come clean and start being straight with the public about the true numbers, rather than hiding behind figures that don’t stand up to scrutiny”. 

“Whitehall has spent years telling the public that civil servants are back at their desks.”

He added: “Whitehall has spent years telling the public that civil servants are back at their desks. This data shows that isn’t true anywhere in Whitehall, and now that DSIT has been abolished, the one department that actually hit the target doesn’t even exist any more. 

“Civil servants are being paid to work in offices they aren’t turning up to. Ministers talk tough on productivity and have issued a mandate that civil servants should be coming into the office a minimum of 60 per cent of the time.” 

The analysis revealed that the Department for Business and Trade claims to have an occupancy rate of 80 per cent. However, its London offices in Caxton House and the Old Admiralty building only have space for 1,058 of its allocated 3,699 staff – meaning the majority of staff are primarily working from home.  

Similarly, the Department for Education has 1,023 desks but employs 2,176 people. The department claims that 59 per cent of its staff come into work but that actually represents only 27 per cent. In addition, the Treasury only has a true occupancy rate of 44 per cent.  

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said the analysis was “misleading and incorrect”. They added: “Staff regularly work across the government estate, not just from their assigned HQ location. There has been no change to government policy on office attendance. We are clear that a minimum 60 per cent office attendance remains the best option for our staff and the public.” 

Furthermore, figures revealed last week show that at least 3,800 civil servants never have to go into the office.  

The Department for Work and Pensions alone has over 2,400 staff on permanent work-from-home contracts. Alongside them, 688 people at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and 492 people in the Department for Education are permanently at home. In some cases civil servants have not attended the office in more than two years. 

“Public sector productivity still lies below pre-pandemic levels.”

Furthermore, working from home has also risen across the country due to the effect of consecutive heatwaves. After a sharp fall in office attendance, the Green Party has proposed legislation to introduce a legal maximum workplace temperature in Britain. Figures from Remit Consulting show average occupancy fell from 45.2 per cent in the week ending June 19 to 37.5 per cent in the week ending June 26.  

According to the Office for National Statistics, public sector productivity still lies below pre-pandemic levels.  

Alex Burghart, the shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said: “Flexible working is one thing, but with thousands of staff never turning up at the office, taxpayers have a right to ask if they’re getting value for money. 

“With public sector productivity falling under Labour, civil servants need to be at their desks. But Labour lack the backbone to stand up to their trade union paymasters. 

“Burnham should tell us if he will do anything to get civil servants back in the office or if he is content to see more taxpayers’ money wasted.” 

Earlier this year, civil service whistle-blowers revealed that it was common practice for civil servants to abuse flexible working policies. It was revealed that staffers are able to game the system by declaring overtime and are racking up extra annual leave through a set-up that lets them choose their start and finish times. Civil servants are also supposedly abusing the system by leaving their laptops open at the end of working from home to rack up extra hours, as well as counting commuting time as part of their workday.   

A former member of staff at The Pensions Regulator, a public body sponsored by the Department for Work and Pensions, said: “A common practice was for staff to leave their laptops idle from around 4pm, only returning at 5:30pm to shut them down so they could log another 90 minutes into their flexi balance.” 

The Pensions Regulator source added: “Almost every member of staff below senior management level is entitled to two flexi days per month, and virtually everyone takes them. The justification, of course, is that these flexi days are supposedly earned, but the reality often looks very different.”  

The source said: “People routinely claimed travel time between home and the office as working time – others counted time spent dropping off or collecting children from school, or even breaks taken for activities such as cycling, framed as part of mental wellbeing.”