Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department has taken to enable its officials to work from home during the covid-19 outbreak.

DWP is committed to supporting everyone during this unprecedented time.

Where colleagues can effectively contribute to this effort working from home then they are doing so. Not all colleagues can work from home because they need to access equipment, programmes and support to enable them to do their telephony and processing work. We are requiring these employees to be in the office but in line with the Government’s advice on critical workers, we are taking all practical steps to protect the health and safety of colleagues working in our offices.

The Department has procured significantly more portable computers to expand our home working capacity. Colleagues who require specialist IT equipment for accessibility reasons are able to order this for use at home and those who are in the vulnerable or shielding category can have it delivered to their home address.