The government announced on Wednesday 19 January 2022 that it was no longer asking people to work from home, with all other Plan B measures in England being lifted by 27 January. Civil servants who had been following government guidance and working from home could then start returning to their workplaces.

This data presents the daily average number of staff working in departmental HQ buildings, for each week (Monday to Friday) beginning the week commencing of 7 February 2022.

Contacts

Press enquiries: pressoffice@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Methodology

The data was originally gathered for internal purposes to indicate the progress being made by departments in returning to the workplace in greater numbers. Data was collected from Departmental HQ buildings to gain a general understanding of each department’s position without requiring departments to introduce data collection methods across their whole estate which would be expensive and resource intensive.

These figures incorporate all employees for the departments providing data for this report whose home location is their Departmental HQ building. The figures do not include contractors and visitors.

A listing of all Civil Service organisations providing data is provided.

Data on percentage of employees working in the HQ buildings are provided by departments

All data presented are sourced and collected by departments and provided to the Cabinet Office. The data presented are not Official Statistics.

There are 4 main methods used to collect the Daily Average Number of Employees in the HQ building:

• wifi and/or computer log-ins associated with location
• swipe pass entry data
• space or desk booking system
• manual count

This data does not capture employees working in other locations such as other government buildings, other workplaces or working from home.

It is for departments to determine the most appropriate method of collection.

Notes on measure of attendance in the workplace

The data provided is for Departmental HQ buildings only and inferences about the wider workforce cannot be made.

Work is underway to develop a common methodology for efficiently monitoring occupancy that provides a daily and historic trend record of office occupancy levels for a building.

Comparisons between departments

The data shouldn’t be used to compare departments. The factors determining the numbers of employees working in the workplace, such as the differing operating models and the service they deliver, will vary across departments. The different data collection methods used by departments will also make comparisons between departments invalid.

Calculations

Percentage of employees working in the HQ building compared to building capacity is calculated as follows:

Where daily average number of employees in the HQ building equals:

Collection periods

The data is collected weekly. Unless otherwise stated, all the data reported is for the time period Monday to Friday.

Definitions

In the majority of cases the HQ building is defined as where the Secretary of State for that department is based.

Current Daily Capacity is the total number of people that can be accommodated in the building.

Departments providi

About

These official statistics in development provide provisional estimates of the productivity of DCMS sectors for 2019 to 2022, and provisionally for 2023, measured by gross value added (GVA) per hour worked.

This is the first time we have published time series data for output per hour, which is the preferred measure of labour productivity and has the advantage of accounting for different working patterns. We have previously published productivity estimates for output per job, however suitable data is not currently available to update this series. We will review this in future, based on both data availability and user needs

These estimates should not be directly compared to the previously published ones, as the methodology has since changed and the data used to produce the older estimates has since been substantially revised.

Content

DCMS sectors

These statistics cover productivity in the following DCMS sectors:

• creative industries
• cultural sector
• gambling
• sport

Users should note that there is overlap between DCMS sector definitions and that several cultural sector industries are simultaneously creative industries.

A definition for each sector is available in the tables published alongside this release. Further information on all these sectors is available in the associated technical report above along with details of methods and data limitations.

Estimates exclude tourism, due to a lack of suitable data, and civil society, as our definitions for civil society jobs, hours worked and GVA are incompatible. Work is ongoing to explore the feasibility of developing estimates.

Headline findings:

In 2023:

• Output per hour in included DCMS sectors (creative industries, culture, sport and gambling) was £35, compared to £43 for the UK as a whole. This means that for DCMS sectors compared to the UK average, more hours of work are needed to generate the same amount of GVA.
• Between 2022 and 2023, we provisionally estimate that output per hour in included DCMS sectors fell by around 3% compared to a fall for the overall UK economy of around 0.5%.
• Compared to pre-pandemic (2019), included DCMS sector output per hour in 2023 was estimated to be relatively unchanged, compared to around a 3% increase for the UK as a whole.
• DCMS sector productivity estimates vary by sector and subsector.

The following information is worth noting:

• Estimates for 2023 are provisional and subject to change when the National Accounts are published later in 2025.
• GVA is a standard measure of labour output, and has the advantages of comparability and availability of data, but will produce apparently lower values of productivity for parts of DCMS sectors (e.g. museums, libraries) where goods and services are often provided free at the points of consumption and have wider cultural and societal benefits (which may also include indirect effects on UK GVA).
• These estimates use the ONS dataset https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/economicoutputandproductivity/productivitymeasures/datasets/outputperhourworkeduk" class="govuk-link">output per hour worked which is classified as official statistics in development because the estimates are based on the Labour Force Survey which has been impacted by falling sample sizes. The estimates also use ONS Annual Population Survey (APS) estimates of hours worked, which has also been impacted by falling sample sizes. As a result, the accreditation of ONS statistics based on the APS was temporarily suspended on 9 October 2024 and these statistics are considered official statistics in development until further review. This means there is greater uncertainty in DCMS sector estimates.

Released

First published on 20 March 2025.

Official statistics in development: Call for Feedback

These statistics are labelled as https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/policies/official-statistics-policies/official-statistics-in-development/" class="govuk-link">official statistics in development. Official statistics in development are official statistics that are undergoing development and will be tested with users, in line with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the https://code.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/" class="govuk-link">Code of Practice for Statistics. These productivity estimates are designed to complement our other economic estimates and to give a deeper understanding of the economic performance of DCMS sectors to the UK economy. They are being published as official statistics in deve