The UK’s Serious Fraud Office will reimburse staff for three years of extra travel costs once the agency moves to Canary Wharf — despite requiring just two days a week office attendance.
The fraud squad has told workers it will pay them any difference between their current commute to Westminster and their new journey to east London, where the SFO is relocating by the end of its financial year, according to documents provided under the Freedom of Information Act.
There is no cap on what employees can claim and the program is open to all SFO staffers who were working there on April 1, barring a handful of senior directors, according to the documents.
SFO staff are required to work from the office 40% of the time — equivalent to two days per week for a full-time employee. This is below the civil service’s mandate for 60% office attendance.
The SFO cut its space at its current headquarters at Cockspur Street in Westminster to allow for 40% staff attendance, and took its new space at Cabot Square on the same basis, according to an answer to a parliamentary question by the Attorney General’s Office on Sept. 11.
“We are looking forward to moving to Canary Wharf into accommodation that supports our operational needs,” an SFO spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “The excess fares allowance supports eligible staff during this transition.”
Canary Wharf, several miles east of central London, is a dense business district mostly populated by financial firms. Yet the SFO won’t be the only government body: it will soon be neighbors with the Competition and Markets Authority, the UK’s antitrust agency, which is also based in Cabot Square.
“From our offices we will work shoulder to shoulder with our regulatory partners,” Graham McNulty, the SFO’s interim director, said in the agency’s business plan in April, referring to the upcoming move.
The SFO had an average of around 680 staff in 2025–2026, according to its annual report.