PM’s defence plan will not lead to end of working from home – Whitehall chief

There are no plans to review the current policy on working from home for civil servants in response to the urgency of major changes announced by the Prime Minister, the head of the civil service has confirmed.

Cabinet Secretary Sir Chris Wormald, who was appointed by Sir Keir Starmer to “rewire” the way the British state works, told MPs that department leaders should always be considering appropriate ways of working that suit specific circumstances.

But during an appearance before the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, Sir Chris said the existing general rule that civil servants should spend a minimum of three days a week in the office will remain.

Sir Keir Starmer has slashed the aid budget to fund a dramatic increase in defence spending in response to “tyrant” Vladimir Putin and uncertainty over US President Donald Trump’s commitment to European security.

Chair of the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, Simon Hoare, described the announcement as amounting to “major changes in industrial production, almost sort of putting the whole nation on a war footing: procurement, extra expenditure, changes to overseas aid; that is going to have knock-on effects”.

He asked Sir Chris if he “sees urgent merit in bringing people back into the office so that those new cross silo relationships can be forged, rather than trying to do it with a lot of civil servants continuing to work from home”.

Sir Chris said:  “We have a policy on this, as I’m sure you know, which is that people should be in three days a week. It needs to be applied with a level of common sense, depending upon the work that is being done.”

He added: ” We’ve got no plans to change that policy, so I think we’ve hit roughly the right balance.

“There is a big technology element, however and, of course, the Foreign Office is a great example of somewhere that manages to run a very effective network spread all over the world, using technology to do so.

“So the face-to-face bit is very important, but it’s not the only thing.”

When asked if the current policy on homeworking would at least remain under review in response to “speedy and pressing challenges”, Sir Chris said: “No, we have set policy, and we intend to stick to it.

“However, as I said before, there’s very much a horses-for-courses part for this. We are not saying every single department, every single building, you are flat rate doing that thing.”

“Individual permanent secretaries and secretaries of state should be in a constant state of thinking about what next is appropriate for that department in its circumstances, and this is quite a good example of how we need to work.”

Sir Chris was also questioned on progress made in introducing a new way of working across Whitehall to ensure delivery of the Government’s missions.

He said the aim is to promote a “new style of thinking” with a “laser focus on how we solve the problem and how do you have to think differently across organisations in order to solve that”.

However, he added: “We are seeing that type of thinking beginning to be put in place, particularly in the formal missions I’ve described, but it has got a long way to go.”