Desk shortage forcing civil servants to work in corridors and canteens after back-to-office order

Staff outnumber desks by two to-one acrossd department, report says

Jacob Rees-Mogg has been leaving notes on staff desk to pressure them to stop working from home (PA Wire)

Civil servants at the Department for Education (DfE) have been forced to work in canteens and corridors due to a shortage of desks after being ordered back into office.

Staff have been left struggling to find space to work after Jacob Rees-Mogg, the cabinet secretary for efficiencies, launched a concerted campaign to end home-working.

Whole teams have been turned away from some offices because of overcrowding, according to Schools Week.

Figures seen by the outlet showed staff outnumber desks by almost two-to-one across the DfE’s 12 offices.

It comes amid an ongoing row between the government and unions about the future of home working, which was brought in during Covid lockdowns.

In April Mr Rees-Mogg resorted to leaving notes at the desks of workers who were not in the office, saying: "Sorry you were out when I visited. I look forward to seeing you soon."

The move was condemned by civil service unions, who said it was insulting and undermined civil service leadership.

Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, this week accused Mr Rees-Mogg of behaving like an “overgrown prefect”.

A DfE source confirmed to The Independent that staff had been struggling to find desks.

Schools Week reported that in Leeds there are just 24 desks for 110 staff, while Bristol has 95 desks for 299 staff.

But civil service bosses have been asked to get staff into the office for at least 80 per cent of their week.

Schools Week said that, before the pandemic, DfE, which has 4,200 desks for some 8,000, had an occupancy rate of 60 to 70 per cent.

The occupancy rate is now back to around the same level, ministers said earlier this week.

Shadow schools ministers Stephen Morgan said the “bizarre fixation on office attendance is utterly laughable".

A DfE spokesperson said hybrid working was “not new and does not stop offices being used at full capacity”.

They added full occupancy “does not mean every civil servant working from their desk”, adding it was “common for organisations in the private and public sector not to have space for all their employees”.