Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 3 June 2025 to Question 54280 on Civil Servants: Pay, whether civil servants in her Department that are relocated outside of London will have their pay reduced; and whether civil servants employed in new locations outside of London will lose their London weighting.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
I refer the Rt Hon Member to the answer on 3 July (PQ 63008).
The Cabinet Office does not have London Weighting. There are separate London and National pay ranges. If an employee relocates from a London to National location on a voluntary basis, their salary would reduce to the equivalent point on the opposite pay range.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 9 June 2025 to Question 54760 on Civil Servants: London, if he will publish his Department's relocation policy; and whether voluntarily relocated civil servants continue to receive a London weighting.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
This policy has not been previously published, and as with many internal staff policies, there are no current plans to publish it.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much his Department spent on equipment for civil servants to work from home in each of the last three years.
Answered by Justin Madders
DBT’s default approach is Hybrid Working. This combines the benefits of face-to-face working with the flexibility of working from home or another location. Contractual homeworking is a type of flexible working arrangement where an employee and the department agree to change the employee’s designated place of work to their home address. The Civil Service position on contractual home working agreements is that these are not routinely approved other than for a very small number of relevant roles, or where a workplace adjustment is agreed in respect of a disability under the Equality Act or occasionally as a redundancy mitigation. Civil servants are expected to spend at least 60 per cent of their time in the office or on official business, which can include conducting site visits or meeting stakeholders.
DBT is required by The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 to ensure that workstation users, including those who work from home, perform a suitable and sufficient analysis of their workstation. Before purchasing equipment, users must complete mandatory health and safety training, a homeworking checklist, a Display Screen Equipment self-assessment, and obtain line manager approval.
DBT has spent a total of £318,148 from April 2022 to March 2025.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 12 June 2025 to Question 56482 on Civil Service: London allowances, if he will take steps to ensure that the London weighted salaries for his Department's civil servants only apply to employees that work in London.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer on 10 June 2025 (PQ 56482).
Pay arrangements, including those for London, are delegated to each department. The Cabinet Office does not have a London Weighting Allowance. There are separate London and National pay ranges. An individual’s pay, paid as a salary, is determined by the location of their designated office, as set out in their contract.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of moving civil servants to Cheltenham on his Departments staffing costs.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The 2025 Spending Review confirmed £244 million investment supporting the relocation of roles out of Whitehall to complete the development of new hubs in the regions.
Cheltenham will continue to be a vibrant Civil Service location and home to one of GCHQs strategic hubs. The Government Property Agency continues to work closely with departments based in Cheltenham.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much and what proportion of the £244 million to be spent on the development of new government hubs fund will be spent on relocating civil servants to Cheltenham.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The 2025 Spending Review confirmed £244 million investment supporting the relocation of roles out of Whitehall to complete the development of new hubs in the regions.
Cheltenham will continue to be a vibrant Civil Service location and home to one of GCHQs strategic hubs. The Government Property Agency continues to work closely with departments based in Cheltenham.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to his Department's press release entitled Thousands of Civil Service roles moved out of London in latest reform to the state, published on 14 May 2025, what recent progress his Department has made on moving civil service roles outside of London.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
On 14 May, the Government announced it will be:
Strengthening its presence in 13 cross Government locations across the UK.
Ensuring that 50% of UK-based SCS are located outside of London by 2030.
Strengthening the talent pipeline by launching a new apprenticeship programme, setting an ambition for 50% of Fast Stream roles to be based outside London by 2030, and committing to develop and launch a local government interchange programme in partnership with the Local Government Association (LGA).
Reducing the number of Civil Service buildings in London, closing 11 buildings by 2030 to deliver £94m in savings per year.
Launching two new thematic campuses, an Energy Campus in Aberdeen and a Digital & AI Innovation Campus in Manchester.
In June, the Government announced that PfG’s existing thematic campuses in Darlington, Sheffield and Leeds will be leading a new approach to bring together policy makers with those on the frontline to support mission delivery.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 9 June 2025 to Question 54896 on Civil Service: Recruitment, what the expected level of office attendance is in each of her Department’s offices outside London; and whether civil servants recruited under location-neutral positions have the same expectation of workplace attendance.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
In line with this department’s policy, civil servants in offices outside London are generally expected to attend the office for 50% of their working time over a three-month period. Some exceptions apply where specific circumstances limit attendance to less than 50%. Senior Civil Servants are expected to attend an MHCLG office or external location for 60% of their time, regardless of their location. Colleagues who have home-working contracts account for less than 1% of the department’s workforce and do not have the same office attendance expectations. All other staff are contracted to fixed MHCLG locations where the same expectations on office attendance apply. MHCLG maintains an ambition to move to 60% attendance for all staff in future.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what his planned timeline is for establishing the UK Energy Campus in Aberdeen; and over what period departmental roles will be transferred or created there.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Aberdeen was announced as one of DESNZ’s second headquarters in December 2023.
This commitment to the location underlines the importance of Aberdeen in our Net Zero planning.
As of May 2025, there were 100 staff members based in Aberdeen, comprising a wide variety of roles within the department. The ambition is to increase this number and for DESNZ to continue to grow in Aberdeen, with the creation of Great British Energy and the possibility of other Scotland-based Arm's Length Bodies also becoming part of the Energy Campus.
The establishment of a new Energy Campus in Aberdeen is part of the UK Government’s Plan for Change, aimed at fostering collaboration. By relocating skilled roles to the same town or city, government campuses bring together civil servants with diverse skills and expertise through a shared policy or delivery focus. This approach aims to address issues and improve services for working people across the country.
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster has indicated that further details on the Energy Campus will be set out in due course following the completion of the current Spending Review process.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many of his Department's jobs are based in Aberdeen; and how many additional Department roles will be based there once the UK has established its Energy Campus.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Aberdeen was announced as one of DESNZ’s second headquarters in December 2023.
This commitment to the location underlines the importance of Aberdeen in our Net Zero planning.
As of May 2025, there were 100 staff members based in Aberdeen, comprising a wide variety of roles within the department. The ambition is to increase this number and for DESNZ to continue to grow in Aberdeen, with the creation of Great British Energy and the possibility of other Scotland-based Arm's Length Bodies also becoming part of the Energy Campus.
The establishment of a new Energy Campus in Aberdeen is part of the UK Government’s Plan for Change, aimed at fostering collaboration. By relocating skilled roles to the same town or city, government campuses bring together civil servants with diverse skills and expertise through a shared policy or delivery focus. This approach aims to address issues and improve services for working people across the country.
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster has indicated that further details on the Energy Campus will be set out in due course following the completion of the current Spending Review process.