Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much the Standards and Testing Agency has spent on equipment to enable staff to work from home in each of the last three years.

The Standards and Testing Agency (STA) is an executive agency of the department and follows our policies on hybrid working and the purchase of equipment for use at home.

The department has set an expectation that colleagues spend at least 60% of their working time in the office or another work setting. Employees who work from home as part of a flexible arrangement, and not as part of a contractual arrangement, are expected to have access to a suitable workspace and equipment at their own cost. The exception to this would be equipment recommended as a part of a reasonable adjustment following an occupational health assessment, but such equipment would be charged to a central departmental budget rather than to STA.

STA has no recorded expenditure on equipment to enable staff to work from home in any of the last three financial years.