Cabinet ministers are planning a “big push” to get civil servants back to their desks.
Some senior civil servants had said that staff were reluctant to return even for one day a week and had called on ministers to issue the order to return for at least three days a week.
A cabinet minister leading the efforts to scale back remote working said that career prospects would be mentioned.
“There doesn’t seem to be a great enthusiasm to get back to work,” the minister said. “But people will find that those who get on in life are those who turn up to work.”
They added: “There must be the suspicion that some people have spent the last 15 months working from home but haven’t actually been doing very much.”
Another suggested that wages would be cut for those who wished to work from home.
