Grafting

Just one in seven staff at the Department for Work turn up by midday

Fewer than one in seven Department for Work and Pensions civil servants are arriving at the office by midday, the Daily Mail can reveal.

Just 317 of 2,245 of the staff paid to get Britons back into work were at the department's headquarters by noon on a recent Friday – leaving more than three-quarters of the building's 1,395 spaces empty.

Researchers from think-tank the Centre for Government Reform (CGR) stood outside Caxton House, the DWP's central London office, to count the number of staff entering.

They spotted just 26 employees arriving between 7am and 8am and 114 arriving by 9am – representing 5 per cent of Caxton House's total headcount.

The total rose to 220 by 10am and 278 by 11am, reaching 317 by midday – 14 per cent of the office's workforce.