Northern Ireland Office: Buildings
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many and what proportion of desks were occupied in each of his Department’s offices in the most recent four weeks for which figures are available; and how many staff attended each office in person in the same period.
Answered by Hilary Benn
The Northern Ireland Office employs a desk booking system (Matrix) to monitor desk occupancy. Staff can book desks in advance of their intended attendance, or the same day. The following data was gathered from Monday 23 September until Friday 18 October 2024 and relates to the open plan areas in London and Belfast which use the desk booking system. There are 59 desks in the London open plan area and 62 desks in Belfast open plan area available for booking. The information below does not cover Ministerial Offices and other business areas not covered by the booking system.
| London Average Daily Occupancy | London Average Daily Staff Attendance | Belfast Average Daily Occupancy | Belfast Average Daily Staff Attendance |
w/c 23 September 2024 | 47% | 28 | 64% | 40 |
w/c 30 September 2024 | 52% | 31 | 61% | 38 |
w/c 7 October 2024 | 52% | 31 | 60% | 38 |
w/c 14 October 2024 | 54% | 32 | 66% | 41 |
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