Public sector staff might ‘never’ return to desks full-time

Some government departments are set to embrace hybrid working as the norm, a minister at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has said. Paul Scully said some public sector staff would never be back at their desks five days a week, adding that his own department would retain hybrid working. He added that he would “encourage people to get back to their workplaces, because there is so much more that they can do in terms of productivity and collaboration”. Documents circulated by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport showed that just 400 desks have been made available to its 900 staff since work-from-home guidance was dropped. It is understood that about half the desks in the Department of Health are still out of use. The Times (£)