Well they do call it the Home Office! More staff in Priti Patel’s department are working from home than BEFORE Jacob Rees-Mogg’s crackdown on civil servants’ WFH culture

• Jacob Rees-Mogg has attempted to end civil servants’ remote working culture
• An average of 46 per cent of desks were occupied between February and June
• Whitehall source said Home Office was ‘dreadful’ at returning to work post Covid

Even more of the Home Office’s civil servants are working from home than before Jacob Rees-Mogg’s crackdown on remote working culture.

An average of 46 per cent of of the desks in the Whitehall base were occupied in the last week of June, down from 61 per cent in February.

This is despite the efforts of Jacob Rees-Mogg to pry them from their spare rooms and kitchen tables.

Mr Rees-Mogg’s attempts to end WFH have so far included conducting spot head counts in offices at Whitehall and leaving notes on empty desks in a move which was branded insulting by unions.

The note, printed on government paper with Mr Rees-Mogg’s title, was left at empty desks and read ‘I look forward to seeing you in the office very soon.’

Even more of the Home Office’s civil servants are working from home than before Jacob Rees-Mogg’s crackdown on remote working culture (the office is pictured)

As reported in the Telegraph, a Whitehall source said the Home Office had been ‘dreadful’ at returning to work after Covid.

‘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,’ they added.

The Telegraph reports the latest data on office occupancy reveals that almost every department has brought more staff back to the workplace since Rees-Mogg’s crackdown. 

The Department for Work and Pensions has increased its numbers from 32 per cent at the start of February to 56 per cent at the end of June, while the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy was up 59 per cent from 27 per cent. 

Last month’s rail strikes impacted occupancy in the office dramatically, with departments across the board seeing a huge fall in those working at their desks, with the Treasury’s headquarters on Horse Guards was 44 per cent occupied that week compared to 67 per cent on the following.

Priti Patel’s Home Office was one of three departments having a lower office occupancy rate than the numbers in February – and the Cabinet Office minister has threatened ministries with eviction if they don’t use their desk spaces.

Taking a swipe at the out-of-office culture that has taken hold across Whitehall, Rees-Mogg said: ‘My experience of working from home is you spend an awful lot of time making another cup of coffee and then, you know, getting up, walking very slowly to the fridge, hacking off a small piece of cheese, then walking very slowly back to your laptop and then forgetting what it was you’re doing.’

Rees-Mogg (pictured) claims staff are ‘more productive, more energetic, more full of ideas’ when surrounded by colleagues. He says: ‘I believe in the workplace environment’

A note (pictured) which was left on empty desks at Whitehall by Jacob Rees-Mogg who has been campaigning for civil service’s return to work and has recently started patrolling offices

He claims staff are ‘more productive, more energetic, more full of ideas’ when surrounded by colleagues. He says: ‘I believe in the workplace environment.

‘And I think that will help to drive up productivity, it will get our city centres moving in the weekdays and it will be good for mass transit.

‘And a lot of businesses that have been having a tough time will benefit from that.’

Rees-Mogg’s comments echo Boris Johnson’s call for workers to return to the office, months after the Government removed its Covid work from home guidance.

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