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Guidance

The Government Workplace Design Guide

This Government Workplace Design Guide is one of a suite of guidance documents and standards setting out the aspirations for our workspaces.

From:
Government Property Agency
Published
13 October 2020
Last updated
2 July 2026 — See all updates

Documents

Government Workplace Design Guide

https://gpa.gov.uk/insights/guides/government-workplace-design-guide/

Details

The Government Workplace Design Guide (the Guide) sets clear design standards for the Government Property Agency (GPA) estate to create inclusive, accessible, modern, sustainable and digitally-enabled workplaces that support collaboration and align with the Government Estate Strategy.

The Guide provides a consistent design approach that underpins all projects delivered by the Government Property Agency (GPA). As part of a suite of guidance supporting the Government Functional Standard for Property (GovS 004), it sets clear expectations around quality, performance, and the experience we want people to have when working in government offices.

It introduces the Core Design Requirement (CDR) framework; a foundational set of criteria that provides a shared benchmark. The CDR framework ensures a consistent quality across the office estate, whilst providing the much-needed flexibility to adapt and respond to operational needs.

The Guide raises the bar for design quality across the government office estate, setting out the standards and performance expectations that define what outstanding government workplaces look like. The guidance is to be treated as a baseline for innovation — pushing further in sustainable materials, digital infrastructure and inclusive design — rather than simply a threshold to meet.

Updated in 2026, the full Guide is available on the GPA’s website

Updates to this page

Published 13 October 2020
Last updated 2 July 2026 Show all updates

  1. The Government Workplace Design Guide has been updated to reflect the rapid evolution is the way people work in offices. The previous annexes are now out of date and have been removed.

  2. Removed the architectural annex for review

  3. Biodiversity an Nature Recovery Annex .pdf and accessible HTML version added. Updated Sustainability and Net Zero Annex .pdf and created an accessible HTML version of this document

  4. The Government Workplace Design Guide has been updated to reflect modern ways of working.

  5. The page and information has been updated with version 2 of the Government Workplace Design Guide and now includes Part 2: Technical Standards.

  6. The page and information has now been updated with version 2 of the Government Workplace Design Guide, Parts 1 and 2.

  7. The Historic Building Annex has been added to the page.

  8. First published.

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