Ashley Fox

Cabinet Office staff are encouraged to book desks, but it is not mandatory.

Similarly, of the Cabinet Office's arm's length bodies that directly employ their own staff, none mandate booking a desk in order to attend the office in person.

All furniture and AV equipment has been, and must be, sourced from the GPA's Approved Supplier's catalogue.

An itemised breakdown of spending is as follows (all costs are excluding VAT unless otherwise specified):

Furniture for existing Ministerial Offices:

• Chairs x 6 - £7,384

Two of the chairs are in use within the Secretary of State's office and the other four are used in other areas of the office.

Furniture for new Ministerial Offices:

• Height adjustable desk - £1,566
• Armchair - £1,033
• Meeting Chairs x 14 - £12,964
• Furniture to house AudioAV equipment - £4,158.42
• Delivery, installation and dismantling and re-positioning of existing furniture - £1602.07 (including VAT)

The number of Ministers in DESNZ increased by one following the general election, the result of which was a higher than usual spend to facilitate the creation of an additional office.

Cost of Other Refurbishment of Ministerial Offices including moves:

• Porterage for over 5 days and rental of crates for 90 days - £13,387.93
• Floor power alterations within the Ministerial Office, their Private Office and Waiting Room - £2,241.24

Porterage was carried out between 5-15 July. All other work was commissioned on, or after, 15 July and completed by, or before, 19 October.

The Floor Power Alterations were to install additional power boxes within the floor due to the increased space utilisation. Please note this item was not correctly identified and included in the response to PQ UIN 12890.

All furniture and AV equipment has been, and must be, sourced from the GPA's Approved Supplier's catalogue.

An itemised breakdown of spending is as follows (all costs are excluding VAT unless otherwise specified):

Furniture for existing Ministerial Offices:

• Chairs x 6 - £7,384

Two of the chairs are in use within the Secretary of State's office and the other four are used in other areas of the office.

Furniture for new Ministerial Offices:

• Height adjustable desk - £1,566
• Armchair - £1,033
• Meeting Chairs x 14 - £12,964
• Furniture to house AudioAV equipment - £4,158.42
• Delivery, installation and dismantling and re-positioning of existing furniture - £1602.07 (including VAT)

The number of Ministers in DESNZ increased by one following the general election, the result of which was a higher than usual spend to facilitate the creation of an additional office.

Cost of Other Refurbishment of Ministerial Offices including moves:

• Porterage for over 5 days and rental of crates for 90 days - £13,387.93
• Floor power alterations within the Ministerial Office, their Private Office and Waiting Room - £2,241.24

Porterage was carried out between 5-15 July. All other work was commissioned on, or after, 15 July and completed by, or before, 19 October.

The Floor Power Alterations were to install additional power boxes within the floor due to the increased space utilisation. Please note this item was not correctly identified and included in the response to PQ UIN 12890.

The Government Property Agency has confirmed £42,095.42 excluding VAT was spent on new furniture and fittings plus other refurbishment (including moves) in relation to private offices for the Department for Energy, Security and Net Zero ministers. This is broken down as follows;

• New Furniture and Fittings - £28,707.49

• Other Refurbishment of Ministerial Offices including moves - £13,387.93

It should be noted that the number of Ministers in DESNZ increased by one following the general election, the result of which was a higher than usual spend to facilitate an additional office.

The Government Property Agency has confirmed £18074.22 excluding VAT was spent since the dissolution of parliament on 30th May on new furniture and fittings plus other refurbishment (including moves) in relation to private offices for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. This is broken down as follows;

• New Furniture and Fittings - £9985.38

• Other Refurbishment of Ministerial Offices including moves - £8088.84, of which £4,821.76 was incurred between 30th May and July 4th.

Desk booking systems are in use at several DBT’s offices, including its London headquarters. Except for offices at Caxton House, London, it is not compulsory for people to book a desk for them to attend the office in person.

Arms length bodies have their own individual policies and procedures relating to desk booking.

LITE is being introduced gradually as we design, build and iteratively improve the system. It was initially introduced in 2021 for a small number of exporters and this gradual increase in cases continued through 2022. The then Government concluded a total of 384 cases in LITE over 2021 and 2022 and the median processing time was 38 days.

In 2023, the then Government paused the reporting of LITE processing times whilst new functionality was developed. The Government is planning to return to publishing LITE data during 2025 once this functionality is implemented.

Between 1 January and 30 June 2024, the median processing time for Standard Individual Export Licence (SIEL) applications submitted on SPIRE and processed to first outcome was 16 working days.

The Export Control Joint Unit’s (ECJU) current performance targets are to complete 70% of applications for SIELs within 20 working days, and 99% within 60 working days.

The Export Control Joint Unit publish comprehensive statistics every quarter about export licence applications, which includes our median processing times. The most recent publication covers the quarter up to June 2024. This data is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data.

Heads of Department have agreed that 60% minimum office attendance for most staff continues to be the best balance of working for the Civil Service.

Office occupancy data for the period July - September has been published, with further publications to now happen on a quarterly basis. The data is published here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-hq-occupancy-data

I refer the (Rt.) Hon. Member to my response to question 9606, tabled on 16^th October 2024.

Please see below a summary of the number of staff assigned by each location and the number of desks per location as of 30th September 2024:

*We have several offices across the country that are listed under Regional Offices, it would exceed the word count if these were to be listed in totality.

Civil servants who work in the Department’s office locations are asked to book a space to work from the office. In 12 buildings this is a booking for a specific desk, and in 3 buildings it is for an unspecified working space on a particular floor within the building.

Desk booking services for arm’s-length bodies within the Department are not centrally held, and would come at disproportionate cost to the Department in producing this information.

Details of Ministers’ and Permanent Secretaries' meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK.

Published declarations include the purpose of the meeting and the names of any additional external organisations or individuals in attendance.

There are 571 desks in 55 Whitehall and 3-8 Whitehall Place. The average daily building attendance between week commencing 16 September through to week commencing 7 October was 900. The average number of daily building attendees exceeds the number of desks due to usage of meeting rooms and other parts of the building.

Figures are provided for the Department’s main London occupation at 55 Whitehall and 3-8 Whitehall Place only, which are two adjacent conjoined buildings, and the only office location where attendance figures enabling desk occupancy to be calculated are available, and which is occupied solely by the Department’s staff.

The Department is a customer of the Government Property Agency (GPA) at all its office locations. The office where the Department’s ministers are located is a GPA Hub building, where GPA is the landlord and building manager and the Department is a tenant. GPA is responsible for the fit out, furnishing and refurbishment of all office spaces, which includes ministerial offices.

The number of civil servants assigned to the Department’s office locations, and how many desks are available in each office location, are shown below:

Notes:

In all locations except 55 Whitehall and 3-8 Whitehall Place, London and Old Admiralty Building, London, the Department’s staff are located in shared spaces with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. The desk figures shown are for both Government departments.

Civil servants who work in the Department’s office locations are asked to book a space to work from the office. In 16 buildings this is a booking for a specific desk, and in 3 buildings it is for an unspecified working space on a particular floor within the building.

Desk booking services for arm’s-length bodies within the Department are not centrally held, and would come at disproportionate cost to the Department in producing this information.

Heads of Department have agreed that 60% minimum office attendance for most staff continues to be the best balance of working for the Civil Service. Office occupancy data for the period July - September has been published, with further publications on a quarterly basis. The data is published here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-hq-occupancy-data

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 5 November to Question 9825.

Heads of Department have agreed that 60% minimum office attendance for most

staff continues to be the best balance of working for the Civil Service. Office

occupancy data for the period July - September has been published, with further

publications to now happen on a quarterly basis. The data is published here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-hq-occupancy-data

The Department is a customer of the Government Property Agency (GPA) at all its office locations. The office where the Department’s ministers are located is a GPA building, where GPA is the landlord and building manager and the Department is a tenant. GPA is responsible for the fit out, furnishing and refurbishment of all office spaces, which includes ministerial offices.