Cabinet Office to open secondary headquarters in Glasgow

Hundreds of civil servants will move to Scotland under plans to open a secondary headquarters of the Cabinet Office in Glasgow.

At least 500 officials in Michael Gove’s department are expected to be relocated by 2024, the Financial Times reported.

The paper said Alex Chisholm, permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office, told staff: “As a department with a key responsibility for the union, it is particularly appropriate that we move to strengthen our presence and commitment in Scotland.”

Decision makers should be close to the people they serve and we want to see opportunity, jobs and investment fairly distributed across the country

It is the latest Whitehall department to see staff moved out of London under the Government’s bid to “level up” opportunity and jobs across the UK.

Earlier this month, Chancellor Rishi Sunak confirmed that hundreds of Treasury jobs would be moved to Darlington, while Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said a second headquarters of his department would be set up in Wolverhampton.

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “Decision makers should be close to the people they serve and we want to see opportunity, jobs and investment fairly distributed across the country.

“That’s why we’ve committed to relocating Civil Service roles out of central London, building on the thousands of civil servants we already have working across the United Kingdom.”