Half of Home Office staff still working remotely despite asylum crisis

Fifty-four per cent of desks at its headquarters were occupied during the week commencing October 17

Nearly half of Home Office staff are still working from home, figures show, despite the department facing a wealth of challenges including the asylum crisis.Fifty-four per cent of desks at its headquarters were occupied during the week commencing October 17, second-lowest only to the Foreign Office.

The Home Office was among the five lowest-ranked for attendance at its main building in the five consecutive weeks covering September 19 to October 21, according to data published on the Cabinet Office website.

Across Whitehall, one-third of civil servants are still working from home, with an average of 64 per cent of staff at their desks as of two weeks ago in the week commencing October 24.The figures will raise questions about whether the department’s leadership has done enough to encourage employees back into the office after the pandemic.

The Ministry of Defence fared best for headquarters occupancy, with an average of 92 per cent attendance in the four weeks commencing October 3.It was followed by the Department for Trade and the Cabinet Office, both of which averaged 77 per cent during the four-week period at their 70 Whitehall and Old Admiralty Building offices.Occupancy at the Foreign Office was lowest in this time period, with an average of 42 per cent. At the Treasury, the figure was 68 per cent, with 71 per cent desk occupancy at the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) headquarters.Analysis by The Telegraph appears to suggest the push for civil servants to return to government buildings has had some success, with occupancy averaging 65 per cent between October 3 and October 28, comparing to 54 per cent between June 6 and July 1.The data was collected from departmental buildings to gain a broad understanding of each department’s position without requiring resource-heavy data collection.