Whitehall departments, quangos and the NHS have splurged nearly £1.3million of taxpayers’ cash on ‘work from home’ equipment in the last year alone.
A Mail on Sunday investigation lays bare the outlay on desks, office chairs and IT equipment for public sector workers still reaping the benefits of hybrid working brought in during the pandemic.
The revelations come after Labour was last month accused of failing to end a work from home culture in the public sector following a drop in civil servants going to the office.
Office attendance across all ministries fell from 75 per cent in March to 72 per cent in June. The biggest fall was at the Cabinet Office.
This follows South Cambridgeshire District Council allowing staff to work just four days a week.
Conservative housing spokesman Gareth Bacon said: ‘It is extraordinary that taxpayers’ money is spent to facilitate working from home.
‘At a time when productivity is plunging, taxpayers deserve better. These officials need to get back to the office and do the work for which taxpayers pay them.’
A Mail on Sunday investigation lays bare the outlay on desks, office chairs and IT equipment for public sector workers still reaping the benefits of hybrid working. Pictured: Stock image
Office attendance across all ministries fell from 75 per cent in March to 72 per cent in June . Pictured: Stock image
Our analysis shows a £386,380 contract was awarded by Wes Streeting’s Department for Health and Social Care for ‘home working equipment such as monitors, keyboards, desks and chairs’ in January.
Also, Companies House, the business records service, put aside £250,000 in May to pay couriers to deliver IT equipment and working from home items to workers’ doors.
The Insolvency Service planned to spend £100,000 on furniture for home workers and the Land Registry agreed to spend up to £470,000 on furniture for staff at home.
Leicestershire County Council will spend up to £50,000 on chairs at home, while £33,000 has been put aside by United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust for radiographers to read scans from home.
Housing Secretary Steve Reed has ordered South Cambridgeshire District Council staff to work five days a week, not four.
United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said it covered many sites and needed ‘a robust digital infrastructure that supports our teams to work from different locations when required and is resilient to external factors that can impact the delivery of our services, such as extreme weather or pandemics’.
A Land Registry spokesman said: ‘Under the terms of the contract awarded, HM Land Registry has the ability to purchase equipment for home working if and when it is required.’
