Quarter of tax office staff working from home

Deputy Neil Inder said he had been informed of concerns about staff working from home within the Revenue Service

The States of Guernsey has revealed a quarter of Revenue Service staff are regularly working from home.

In a response to questions from deputy Neil Inder, Policy and Resources (P&R) said "at any given time an average of 30 employees have hybrid working patterns in place".

"Approximately 75% of all employees are working from the office on any given day," they said.

Inder said he had been informed of "particular concerns about the use of remote working within Revenue Service".

In its response, P&R said: "Any agreed hybrid working patterns consist of no more than two days a week."

It comes amid delays in the time taken to issue repayments, with more than 6,000 people still waiting for a rebate at the end of August.

P&R Vice-President Gavin St Pier said the rate of repayments was "not an acceptable level of service to the public".

On 28 July the BBC asked the States about whether data on the number of people working from home would be collected in the future but officials have not responded.

Inder's questions follow a set of rule 14 questions submitted by former deputy Chris Le Tissier.

In reply, the States said there was no central register of the number of staff working from home.

Inder queried the number of States staff working two jobs

As part of his questions, Inder said he had heard there were some States employees working second jobs.

P&R said staff were allowed second jobs, but there was no evidence of staff doing them during contracted hours and if there was it would constitute gross misconduct.

On the monitoring of staff productivity while working from home, P&R said: "The States of Guernsey do not use IT applications to monitor the work and relative productivity of staff.

"The monitoring of employee output is conducted by the line manager, regardless of the work setting."

Figures from the States also showed there were 77 full-time staff members on long-term sick leave as of the end of August.

The States revealed these absences were costing about £975,000 and the reply to Inder's questions also showed 14 States employees had failed their probation in 2025.

The States of Guernsey is the island's biggest employer, with about 5,800 staff.