the times | Monday August 3 2020 2GM 9News
Civil servants are rebelling against Bo-
ris Johnson’s order for a mass return to
work in government departments this
week after two new Covid-19 outbreaks
in Whitehall.
Officials have accused ministers of
using them as guinea pigs for the gov-
ernment’s plans to boost the economy
by sending people back to their offices.
While government departments
have carried out risk assessments to es-
tablish how many people can safely
return to work, senior officials have
made clear to their staff that civil ser-
vants will not be forced back into the
office if they do not want to go.
Health officials have been investi-
gating two outbreaks in Whitehall last
week: one at the Home Office and one
at the Cabinet Office.
On Thursday, a Cabinet Office offi-
cial who is co-ordinating Whitehall’s
response to the pandemic tested posi-
tive for the virus. More than a dozen
staff at the department have been re-
ferred to the NHS test and trace service.
In the Home Office, Chris Philp, the
immigration minister, had to go into
isolation after coming into close con-
tact with an official who had tested pos-
itive. It is understood that several other
staff who were in contact with the same
official are now also off work.
Privately, staff are being reassured by
their departments that most civil ser-
vants will continue working from home
this month and have been told to come
in only if they want to.
Several departments, including the
Treasury and the Department for Busi-
ness, Energy and Industrial Strategy,
have been assured they will get two
months’ notice before any collective
return to work. Treasury officials must
book a space 48 hours in advance if they
want to go in.
“You can’t experiment and virtue-
signal with people’s health,” one White-
hall source said.Legal advice centres could collapse and
about 60 per cent of high street
solicitors fear going out of business as a
result of the pandemic, MPs have told
the government.
The justice committee called for
more funding for law centres and other
not-for-profit legal services in a report
into the effect of the virus on the legal
profession in England and Wales.
The MPs said that publicly funded
providers of legal advice were under
stress before the outbreak and that
without financial support the public’s
“access to real justice” would suffer.
The committee’s conclusions came
after a report in May from the Law
Society, which said that high street law
firms had been badly affected by the
lockdown. The society, which repre-
sents 145,000 solicitors in England and
Wales, found that property conveyan-
cing was down by 60 per cent, immigra-
tion work by at least 65 per cent and
criminal matters by 75 per cent, while
housing possession cases had dried up.
“No part of the legal sector is going to
emerge unscathed from this,” saidHalf of local solicitors ‘face going bust’
Simon Davis, the society president, in
evidence to the justice committee.
The Law Society’s survey at the be-
ginning of May found that more than
60 per cent of high street solicitors
feared they could be out of business by
autumn because of cashflow problems.
It pointed out that caseloads in both
crown and magistrates’ courts as well as
police stations plummeted in April.
“Legally aided services that were
already under significant financial
strain following many years of reduc-
tions to legal aid budgets are under great
pressure,” said the report. The MPs
added: “We are concerned that as a
result of coronavirus some barristers,
solicitors and law centres may collapse.”
The committee said that it was
“imperative” that the Ministry of Jus-
tice took action to prevent the collapse
of businesses providing legal services.
Sir Bob Neill, the committee’s Tory
chairman, who worked as a criminal
barrister, said: “I know some people
won’t have a lot of sympathy for lawyers
who dress up in fancy gowns and speak
a language of their own. People are
under the misapprehension they are all
on comfortable incomes. Some are butvery many, especially given their recent
big drop in workload, are not.”
Sir Bob called on ministers to consid-
er additional grants for not-for-profit
legal advice agencies and increased
funding of legal aid, saying: “Otherwise,
the next time a victim of a crime or a
defendant — both of whom may be on
modest incomes — has a brush with the
legal system, they may find they have
no access to real justice.”
The report also urged the justice
ministry to ensure that the consequen-
ces of the pandemic on the legal system
did not disproportionately affect the
incomes of ethnic minority lawyers.
In other recommendations, the MPs
said that the present system of remote
hearings and consultations should be
reviewed by court service officials to as-
sess how well they have worked before
the programmes are expanded.
Responding to the report, the Minis-
try of Justice said: “Covid-19 presents
an unprecedented challenge but we
have kept the justice system running by
prioritising urgent cases, rapidly in-
creasing remote hearings, introducing
Nightingale courts and investing mil-
lions in buildings and technology.”Jonathan Ames Legal EditorYoung disabled jobseekers
at risk of being left behind
Nadeem BadshahA generation of young people with dis-
abilities need help to prevent a looming
jobs crisis, the government has been
warned.
A coalition of nine groups, led by the
National Deaf Children’s Society, have
written to ministers to say that they are
“deeply concerned” and have called for
changes to the government’s plans to
stop a surge in unemployment.
They suggest eight reforms including
training careers advisers to work with
disabled people, making online job
searching more accessible and expand-
ing the “kickstarter” scheme which
provides subsidised six-month work
placements for young people on uni-
versal credit.
The groups said that without
changes to the system, a huge increase
in competition for jobs will leave the
UK’s 500,000 disabled people aged 16
to 25 struggling to find work. The letter,
sent to ministers including Rishi Sunak,
the chancellor, and Thérèse Coffey, thework and pensions secretary, said: “The
economic crisis caused by Covid-
leaves us deeply concerned that a
generation of disabled young people
will be left behind.”
Steve Haines, director of policy and
campaigns at the National Deaf Child-
ren’s Society, said: “The government’s
efforts to get young people into work
are very promising but we’re extremely
concerned that those who are disabled
will still struggle to access jobs.
“There’s a generation of potential
available and the government has the
chance to unlock it, but unless changes
are made to the plan for jobs, hundreds
of thousands of disabled young people
will face years of being left behind.
“They already battle discrimination
throughout their lives and often find it
harder to gain employment, so we
cannot risk the gap getting any wider.”
Other organisations that signed the
letter included the Thomas Pockling-
ton Trust, Disability Rights UK, Genius
Within, Leonard Cheshire and the
Institute for Employment Studies.News
and tell middle-aged to shield
Whitehall fights shy
after office outbreaks
Oliver Wright, Eleni Courea
Patrick Maguire“There will be a small increase in
numbers — hopefully that will see off
ministers, and by the time we get fur-
ther down the track it may be that
they’re back working from home
again.”
Risk assessments suggest that most
departments will have to operate at be-
low half capacity into the autumn.
About one fifth of the civil servants
across government are working from
the office, it is understood. Alex Chish-
olm, the second-in-command at the
civil service, wrote to departments last
week that it was time to “change the de-
fault that civil servants should work
from home and accelerate the return to
the workplace from August”.
Mr Johnson said last week that it was
safe for people to return to work despite
retreating from a planned loosening of
restrictions this month. “It is safe to go
into a Covid-secure workplace; people
should understand that,” he said.
Dave Penman, general secretary of
the FDA union, which represents
senior Whitehall officials, said that
Downing Street should not be using
officials to “virtue-signal” to the private
sector.
“The announcement this weekend of
further restrictions has demonstrated
how fragile the battle against Covid-
is,” he said.
“The majority of civil servants are
currently working successfully from
home, delivering vital public services.
“Ministers need to recognise this and
allow the civil service to manage this
transition, without pressure to virtue-
signal for a pattern of working that has
already changed for good.”
A government spokesman said:
“Civil servants have worked through-
out the pandemic and have made sig-
nificant, valuable contributions to-
wards the national effort.
“We are consulting closely with em-
ployees on ending the default that civil
servants should work from home and
are ensuring workplaces are Covid-se-
its first major Andy Warhol retrospective in two decades until November 15. Visitors to the gallery must book a slot online cure so civil servants can return safely.”XINHUA/REX