Department for Business and Trade written question – answered at on 8 September 2025.
Lee Anderson
Reform UK, Ashfield
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what information they hold on the number of workdays that were completed remotely in their Department in (a) 2024 and (b) 2025 to date.
Justin Madders
Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
On 24 October 2024 the Cabinet Office announced that 60% minimum office attendance for most staff continues to be the best balance of working for the Civil Service. Senior managers will continue to be expected to be in the office more than 60% of the time. Due to space constraints the department has set the requirement of 40% for delegated grades.
The department does not hold comprehensive data on the number of workdays that were completed remotely. See Civil Service Headquarters occupancy data for published information covering departmental headquarters building occupancy.
The department introduced a process to record office attendance information from 4 August 2025. This data is not yet available.
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Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
