Government’s response to Home-Based Working Select Committee recommendations a “missed opportunity”

The FDA has criticised the government’s response to recommendations made by the House of Lords Select Committee on Home-Based Working.

Last year the FDA provided evidence to the committee on the 60% office attendance mandate based on its own research, which the committee adopted in its recommendations.

In an opinion piece for Civil Service World, FDA Assistant General Secretary Lauren Crowley said the government had “missed another opportunity to make hybrid working a success”, saying: 

“The committee’s report offered a chance for the government to reconsider whether a one-size-fits-all office attendance mandate is the right tool for a complex and geographically dispersed workforce of half a million people. Instead, the government has chosen to maintain the policy without setting out any clear evidence of its benefits.”

Crowley continued:

“For the government, getting this right offers clear benefits: improved productivity, a meaningful and modern working model for civil servants, and a stronger position for the civil service in a competitive labour market.

“But it continues to pursue a dogmatic approach of a top-down, one-size-fits-all quota for half a million civil servants across 200 employers.”