Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what is the percentage office workplace attendance requirement in each office of the Attorney General’s Office and each of its superintended departments offices, broken down by location; and whether attendance statistics are collated for each of those individual offices.
The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) requires staff to attend the workplace for a minimum of 60% of their contracted working time, in line with the Civil Service office attendance expectation. The AGO operates from a single office location in London. Attendance data is collated at a departmental level.
As the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is a geographically dispersed organisation with staff working across offices, courts, police stations and other government departments' buildings, local leadership provide assurance of compliance with CPS’s hybrid working policy and conduct local monitoring, but attendance statistics are not specifically collated at a national level.
The Government Legal Department (GLD), irrespective of site, has a 60% attendance expectation, but we do not currently collect attendance statistics for each of our individual sites.
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) requires 40% workplace attendance, which is an exception to the Cabinet Office guidance for 60% occupancy. This is due to the SFO having reduced its space at its current office (Canada House) based on 40% attendance and secured space in its new office (Cabot Square, Canary Wharf) based on the same. The SFO operates from a single office site, currently at Canada House and is set to move to Cabot Square before the end of the financial year. However, employees also work from other locations, including court or across the country when conducting executive action. Attendance is currently managed locally by line managers and statistics are not collated automatically.
For HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI), the nature of the work is such that inspectors are frequently “on-site” for inspection work in the offices of those they inspect. HMCPSI staff meet at both the London and York offices regularly for inspection and other meetings as per their inspection methodology as business need dictates. All staff are required to attend a mandated office day once a month as well as all staff days and all-inspector days, which are mandated, in addition to the above. Central attendance statistics are not collated for either office by HMCPSI as they share space in both locations with other departments.