Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how much the Intellectual Property Office has spent on equipment to enable staff to work from home in each of the last three years.

The Intellectual Property Office does not hold a complete central record of all spending on equipment to support home working as provision can be made utilising office surplus or stock equipment. Information is only centrally recorded where the individual costs exceed £500 or recorded as a reasonable adjustment in line with Health and Safety legislation for Occupational Health.

The Office has spent the following on equipment for safe and productive home working:

(i) 2022-23 = £27,069.13

(ii) 2023-24 = £8250.11

(iii) 2024-25 = Zero spend

To obtain comprehensive data for each of the last three years, it would be necessary to contact holders of asset registers across the organisation, which would not be possible within the timeframe for responding to a Written Parliamentary Question, and would incur a disproportionate cost.