Whitehall

Table of contents

Approximate read time: 10 minutes

On 9 January 2025, the House of Lords will consider the following topical question for short debate:

Lord Farmer (Conservative) to ask His Majesty’s Government whether they intend to change requirements for civil servants to work in government offices following a vote for possible strike action over compulsory office attendance at the Land Registry.

1. How often are civil servants required to work in government offices?

Most civil servants are expected to spend at least 60% of their working time at a government building or on official business such as visiting stakeholders.[1] Senior managers are expected to be in the office more than 60% of their working time. This expectation was set out in the ‘Civil service people plan 2024–2027’ published in January 2024 under the Conservative government.

In October 2024, the Labour government confirmed that the commitment to a 60% office attendance mandate would remain.[2] The Cabinet Office said the policy reflected the view of civil service leaders that there were “clear benefits of spending time working together face-to-face as the government delivers on the ‘Missions’ commitments”. It stated the policy was comparable to other large private and public sector employers. The Cabinet Office has also said that department leaders were committed to listening to staff and making adaptions to individual needs where required to ensure the policy met business needs.

Since June 2022, the Cabinet Office has published data on the average occupancy of civil service headquarter buildings.[3] The original purpose of the data was to measure progress made by departments in returning to the workplace following the Covid-19 pandemic and the government’s announcement on 10 January 2022 that it was no longer asking people to work from home.[4] Between June 2022 and May 2024, the Conservative government published the occupancy data on a weekly basis.[5] However, these publications were suspended in line with pre-election guidance for the duration of the 2024 general election period. Since then, the Labour government has confirmed that the data would be published on a quarterly basis. The latest publication showed the monthly average of departmental headquarter building occupancy from July to September 2024. This showed the average monthly occupancy for the Cabinet Office headquarter building (70 Whitehall) to be 96%, 77% and 91% for July, August and September 2024 respectively, for example. The monthly averages for other department headquarter buildings can be found in Cabinet Office transparency data on the UK government website: ‘Monthly average HQ building occupancy’ (updated 8 November 2024).

2. Why have some HM Land Registry civil servants voted for industrial action?

On 27 December 2024, around 3,800 civil servants at the Land Registry voted in favour of industrial action in a dispute over the government’s 60% office attendance mandate.[6] The civil servants who voted for strike action are based at 14 Land Registry offices across England and Wales and are members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS).[7] PCS General Secretary Fran Heathcote argued that “applying arbitrary targets on office attendance doesn’t increase productivity and is unpopular with staff members”.[8] Ms Heathcote also said that “if [the government] want a motivated, hard-working workforce, ministers should trust their own employees to have some say over their working conditions”.

In addition to concerns about the 60% office attendance mandate, the PCS union reported that civil servants at the Land Registry had also raised concerns about having to accept extra responsibilities without extra pay and have accused the department of “inappropriately using personal data”.[9]

At the time of writing, the details and timing of industrial action have not been announced.

Following the announcement, some mortgage, property and conveyancing organisations have raised concerns about the impact industrial action could have on the processing times of Land Registry applications such as land registration forms. For example, Simon Bridgland, director at financial advisor organisation Release Freedom, said “delays at the Land Registry are already monumental, so any strike action will simply magnify them to biblical proportions”.[10] Mr Bridgland argued that “staff being called into the office to catch up on work should be seen as a priority and part of the job for employees, not an opportunity for industrial action”. Adam Stiles, managing director at mortgage advice company Helix Financial Partners, said delays in Land Registry applications were already having a “meaningful impact on property transactions”. Mr Stiles argued that strike action would not only exacerbate the issue but could also “create huge problems in the run-up to the stamp duty changes in April [2025]”. More information on upcoming stamp duty changes can be found in the following government guidance: ‘Stamp duty land tax’ (accessed 3 January 2025).

On behalf of the Land Registry, a spokesperson said the department had always aligned office attendance with civil service expectations.[11] In response to the vote in favour of industrial action, the spokesperson confirmed that the department had plans in place to manage services during any periods of industrial action. They said the department had:

[…] consistently delivered essential services such as searches, registrations (including expedites), and customer contact during previous periods of industrial action and there is no reason why any potential future action should impact any forthcoming transactions.[12]

Commenting on processing times, the Land Registry spokesperson said that more than 90% of all customer requests the department receives are processed within a month.[13] However, they acknowledged that “some of our applications (roughly 2%) are taking longer than we, or our customers, would like”. The latest figures on processing times of Land Registry applications can be found in the following guidance: ‘HM Land Registry: Processing times’ (updated 19 December 2024).

The vote in favour of industrial action at the Land Registry echoed other public sector industrial action announcements made in recent months over mandatory office attendance policies. For example, over 500 PCS union members working at the Office for National Statistics voted in favour of strike action in October 2024 in a dispute about office working rules.[14] Since April 2024, the ONS has mandated for staff to spend at least 40% of their working hours in the office. In response to this, PCS union members at the ONS have taken action short of a strike since May 2024, including refusing to undertake overtime and out-of-grade work.

Additionally, Metropolitan Police civilian staff who are PCS union members voted on 11 December 2024 to go on strike over office attendance requirements which the union says require staff to work in the office between 60% and 100% of the working week.[15] From 6 January 2025, civilian staff are reportedly taking action short of a strike in the form of non-compliance with the workplace attendance policy.[16]

3. Read more

Cover image by Can Pac Swire on Flickr.

References

  1. Cabinet Office, ‘Civil service continues commitment to minimum 60% office attendance’, 24 October 2024. Return to text
  2. As above. Return to text
  3. Cabinet Office, ‘Civil service HQ occupancy data’, 8 November 2024. Return to text
  4. Department of Health and Social Care, ‘England to return to Plan A following the success of the booster programme’, 19 January 2022. Return to text
  5. Cabinet Office, ‘Civil service headquarters occupancy data’, updated 24 October 2024. Return to text
  6. Public and Commercial Services Union, ‘Land Registry workers vote for strike action after being ordered back to the office’, 27 December 2024. Return to text
  7. The locations of the 14 Land Registry offices are as follows: Croydon, Birkenhead, Coventry, Durham, Lancashire, Gloucester, Hull, Leicester, Nottingham, Peterborough, Plymouth, Telford, Wales and Weymouth. Return to text
  8. Public and Commercial Services Union, ‘Land Registry workers vote for strike action after being ordered back to the office’, 27 December 2024. Return to text
  9. As above. Return to text
  10. Jon King, ‘Civil servants’ strike over demand for three days in the office is ‘holding UK to ransom’’, Express, 30 December 2024. Return to text
  11. Monidipa Fouzder, ‘HM Land Registry staff vote to strike over compulsory office attendance’, Law Gazette, 3 January 2025. Return to text
  12. As above. Return to text
  13. Jon King, ‘Civil servants’ strike over demand for three days in the office is ‘holding UK to ransom’’, Express, 30 December 2024. Return to text
  14. Tevye Markson, ‘ONS officials vote to strike in office-attendance row’, Civil Service World, 3 October 2024. Return to text
  15. BBC News, ‘Met Police civilian staff vote for strike action’, 11 December 2024. Return to text
  16. Public and Commercial Services Union, ‘Met Police staff to refuse to comply with return to the office directive’, 19 December 2024. Return to text