Full breakdown of days and costs of all staff and consultants

WQ.351/2020

WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE CHIEF MINISTER

BY DEPUTY K.G. PAMPLIN OF ST. SAVIOUR ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 6th OCTOBER 2020

Question

For the period from 1st March 2020 to date, will the Chief Minister provide a breakdown of –

1. the number and proportion of States employees and consultants either working from home in Jersey or who were working from the U.K.;
2. the number of days worked by employees and consultants from the U.K. during this period; and
3. the cost of any travel required from workers or consultants to travel to, and from, the U.K. for work purposes?

Answer

1. Given the general state of HR records and the current manual processes that have to be used, it is not possible to provide an accurate number or proportion of days worked from home (in Jersey) or from the UK for employees and consultants. It should be noted however, that due to the small numbers of individuals who were working from the UK at the time, we were able to identify those figures in WQ155/2020.

The following information may also be of assistance:

During Level 4 of the Safe Exit Framework which ran from 30/03/20 until 10/05/20, only essential workers were coming into their workplace. There were approximately 1,800 government workers designated as essential, this figure excludes HCS colleagues.

The number working from home decreased over the subsequent months and weeks to the position we are in now, where approximately:

• During the outbreak, roughly 2,000 office-based staff worked from home – roughly 25% of the total.

• Currently, an estimated 15% of public sector workers are working from home on either a full-time or part-time basis.

Level 3 applied in Jersey from 11 May to 11 June. Non-Essential businesses were able to reopen, however working from home remained the default position within GoJ.

Level 2 applied in Jersey from 12 June to 7 August. Working from home remained the default position within GoJ wherever possible, at this time more staff would have returned to the workplace.

The current position is different across all departments dependent on the nature of the work involved, and the ability to perform that work from home.

2. The number of days worked by employees and consultants from the U.K. during this period is not held. As previously stated, WQ.155/2020 confirmed the small number of employees and contractors working from the UK at the end of April.

3. During this period work travel would have only been taken where necessary. Due to the fact that travel may have been incurred in different ways e.g. booked centrally, included in consultants' charges, added as agreed expenses to invoices it is not possible to detail the total cost of travel for work during this period within the time available. If the Deputy has any further, specific queries, we would be more than happy to arrange a briefing with the relevant officials within Human Resources.