THOUSANDS of staff at taxpayer-funded quangos have been given permission to work from the beach, a shock investigation finds.
They have been granted permission to work from abroad over 2,000 times since 2019, research by the TaxPayers’ Alliance found.
The most common countries that staff were given permission to work from were Spain, , Italy, Germany and .
They include the HM Inspectorate of Probation which allowed someone to work from “three days prior to taking annual leave, where all meetings were undertaken remotely”.
And the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science which allowed a staff member to visit family during autumn school break.
Some quango staff have been allowed to work in Chile, Singapore and .
Joanna Marchong, investigations campaign manager at the , said: “Taxpayers are growing ever more curious about what on earth the vast network of quangos are actually doing, and why so much power has been devolved to them.
“Ministers have handed significant control of services and policy to unelected bodies frequently not based in , limiting further their ability to hold them to account.
“And it's now been revealed that many staff are not just based outside of London, they're often not based in the UK at all.”
A government spokesman said: “We expect civil servants to spend the majority of time working from the office, and working outside of the UK must only be approved for exceptional personal circumstances such as bereavement.
“Many of these organisations stated do not employ civil servants and have their own working abroad policies.
“We are currently reviewing all arm’s length bodies to examine where organisations can be closed, merged, or have powers brought back into the department.”;
