HEALTH chiefs are allowed to spend nearly £400,000 on equipment for staff to work from home.
The Department of Health and Social Care has ordered two years’ worth of “monitors, keyboards, desks, and chairs”.
It comes after critics’ warnings that remote working is damaging the UK.
Government data shows that a quarter of DHSC office space was already unoccupied last year.
Details of the deal are revealed in a contract with German office supplies firm Mercateo.
It will cost a maximum of £386,380 but could be less. And it is understood that all items will go to desk-based civil servants — not doctors and nurses.
This week former M&S boss Lord Stuart Rose said WFH was contributing to the economy’s “general decline”.
Many major employers including Amazon, Boots and JP Morgan have been stepping up the pressure on staff to spend more time in the office.
It comes after Health Secretary Wes Streeting put on hold the building of 18 hospitals — saying they were “undeliverable and unaffordable”.
They were signed off in 2019 — but some now are not due to begin construction until 2032 or 2035.
A DHSC spokesman said: “Civil servants must attend the office 60% of the time and the department is legally required to provide basic equipment for staff who work from home if they request it.
“We are committed to getting value for money and this contract lets us buy equipment at the lowest possible cost to the taxpayer.
“No money has been spent under this contract so far.”
