Jacob Rees-Mogg civil servants

The Government Efficiency Minister said officials should return to their desks to realise the benefits of collaborative working.

“To deliver this, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Steve Barclay, and I, urge you to issue a clear message to civil servants in your department to ensure a rapid return to the office.” In a letter to Cabinet ministers, Mr Rees-Mogg said they needed to issue a “clear message” to their departments that with the end of Covid restrictions in England, officials should be back in the office. With up to three-quarters of staff still reportedly working from home, Mr Rees-Mogg accompanied his letter with a league table showing how many staff in each Government department were attending the office on an average day.

Civil servants have been told to return to the offices in a move that has sparked fury with unions.

A Whitehall source quoted by The Daily Telegraph said there was a minority of hard-working officials who were in the office “all the time” while “a silent majority of people aren’t pulling their weight”. Mr Rees-Mogg's letter read: “Now that we are learning to live with Covid and have lifted all legal restrictions in England, we must continue to accelerate the return of civil servants to office buildings to realise the benefits of face-to-face, collaborative working and the wider benefits for the economy. He argued that as we are now "learning to live with Covid" a return to office working would bring the benefits of “face-to-face, collaborative working” as well as delivering wider benefits for the economy.

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Downing Street also repeated Rees-Mogg’s call for civil servants to return to the office. “Actually, that doesn’t work in a virtual world. Instead, they should embrace the benefits of hybrid working and make good on their promise to build back better.” Now they seek to denigrate and offend them. In his letter, Rees-Mogg argued that ending working from home would bring the benefits of “face-to-face, collaborative working”. It said: “I urge you to issue a clear message to civil servants in your department to ensure a rapid return to the office.” The Department for Education topped Rees-Mogg’s working from home league table with 25% of staff coming into the office at the start of April. It was followed by the Department for Work and Pensions at 27%, and the Foreign Office at 33%.

Jacob Rees-Mogg has demanded that cabinet ministers do more to get their civil servants back to the office.

The Department of Health and Social Care was on 72 per cent and the Ministry of Defence on 67 per cent. The Department for Work and Pensions is running at 27 per cent and HM Revenue & Customs at 33 per cent capacity. The least occupied is the Department for Education, operating at 25 per cent capacity.

Ministers told to send a "clear message" that officials should not be working from home.

“Of course, not all jobs need to be done in the office – a trend that was developing even before Covid struck. “Working from your garden shed or spare room is simply harder. Departments have each issued guidance setting out how much time staff are expected to come into government buildings. It is common for departments not to have space for all of their employees to work in the office at once, and many had some hybrid working arrangements in place before the pandemic. The Department for Education has the lowest proportion of staff working from the office, at 25%, according to a table of figures attached to the letter showing average daily attendance in the first week of April. The Department for Work and Pensions, at 27%, and the Foreign Office, at 31%. “To deliver this, the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Steve Barclay, and I, urge you to issue a clear message to civil servants in your department to ensure a rapid return to the office.”

Work has changed and so have workers, it's futile to pretend they haven't, argues Joanna Whitehead.

The pandemic has changed people’s lives irreversibly and, for many people, this includes their approach to work. Bosses who treat you like the responsible adult you are, rather than a mischievous teenager whose aim is to swindle the company, largely reap better results in terms of both productivity and improved interpersonal relations. He added: “To suggest that staff have not been working hard whilst working from home is a nonsense not borne out by the facts. For me, the insistence on round-the-clock surveillance by overzealous bosses speaks volumes about a questionable leadership style lacking in conviction which reflects on, and filters down to, all staff working below. Working from home offers them time to undertake such duties, plus the flexibility to collect, drop-off and make time for any dependents. Smart bosses should recognise increased diversity - including geographical - as a good thing for business.

Civil servants who refuse to resume face-to-face work are said to be accused by Whitehall sources of failing to 'pull their weight'. | ITV National News.

“The whole of the country is getting back to normal, this feels out of step with the rest of the country – who, after all, pay for the existence of the civil service – who have been back in their office working [hard] for quite a while now. “To deliver this, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Steve Barclay, and I, urge you to issue a clear message to civil servants in your department to ensure a rapid return to the office. In his letter, Mr Rees-Mogg reportedly wrote: “Now that we are learning to live with Covid and have lifted all legal restrictions in England, we must continue to accelerate the return of civil servants to office buildings to realise the benefits of face-to-face, collaborative working and the wider benefits for the economy.

The Government Efficiency Minister said officials should return to their desks to realise the benefits of collaborative working.

“To deliver this, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Steve Barclay, and I, urge you to issue a clear message to civil servants in your department to ensure a rapid return to the office.” In a letter to Cabinet ministers, Mr Rees-Mogg said they needed to issue a “clear message” to their departments that with the end of Covid restrictions in England, officials should be back in the office. With up to three-quarters of staff still reportedly working from home, Mr Rees-Mogg accompanied his letter with a league table showing how many staff in each Government department were attending the office on an average day.

The Cabinet is condemned over the push to stop staff working from home, with ministers accused of ignoring the efficiencies this arrangement brings in a ...

"To deliver this, the Chancellor of the Duchy Lancaster, Steve Barclay, and I, urge you to issue a clear message to civil servants in your department to ensure a rapid return to the office." In the letter, first reported by the Daily Telegraph, Mr Rees-Mogg said: "Now that we are learning to live with COVID and have lifted all legal restrictions in England, we must continue to accelerate the return of civil servants to office buildings to realise the benefits of face-to-face, collaborative working and the wider benefits for the economy. The Cabinet is condemned over the push to stop staff working from home, with ministers accused of ignoring the efficiencies this arrangement brings in a move that "just looks vindictive".

A "clear message" must be sent to civil servants about ending home working, minister says.

It said the benefits of flexible working were needed to help the government relocate centres of the civil service outside of London - and to recruit the best staff. He said there was "no rationale" for it, arguing that ministers "couldn't point to productivity losses" and were obsessed with micro-managing the civil service. Jacob Rees-Mogg calls for civil servants to return to the office