Display screen equipment (DSE) is now the everyday reality of most office jobs, and the population covered by the legal duty keeps growing as hybrid and home working become the norm. Under the Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 every employer must assess the workstation of anyone who uses a screen daily for continuous periods of an hour or more — and that duty follows the worker home. This page pulls the key UK numbers together in one fully cited place, drawing primarily on the Office for National Statistics (ONS) hybrid-working articles and the CIPD’s annual flexible-working and Good Work Index surveys, with the regulatory framing set by the HSE’s DSE guidance.
Key facts and figures
- 28% of working adults in Great Britain were hybrid working in Jan–Mar 2025 — the highest share since records began (ONS).
- ~10% of GB employees worked from home all of the time, and about 29% some of the time, as of June 2023 (ONS).
- 41% vs 4% — degree-holders were around ten times more likely to hybrid work than those with no qualifications (Jan–Mar 2025, ONS).
- 45% of managers, directors and senior officials hybrid worked, against just 3% in elementary and caring/leisure roles (Apr–Jun 2024, ONS).
- 49% — hybrid working reached almost half of workers in IT and communication, vs about 4% in accommodation and food service (Apr–Jun 2024, ONS).
- 74% of UK organisations report having hybrid working in place, and 91% offer some form of flexible working (CIPD, 2025).
- 51% of organisations now require staff on-site a minimum number of days per week, most commonly three (CIPD, 2025).
- 1 in 5 home workers received an in-person workstation assessment, with only 36% getting any set-up support (survey of 897 employees, Jan 2020).
These are the latest figures available as of July 2026. The ONS publishes its hybrid-working articles roughly annually, the CIPD’s Flexible and Hybrid Working report lands each summer and its Good Work Index each June — so this page is re-checked every June–July and updated when new data is released.
Who counts as a DSE user, and how big is that population?
A DSE user is anyone who uses display screen equipment daily for continuous periods of an hour or more, and the duty applies equally to permanent home workers and to hybrid workers splitting their week between home and office (HSE, Working with display screen equipment at home, current guidance). That definition captures the bulk of the modern office workforce: anyone whose job is built around a screen — administrators, developers, customer-service staff, analysts, designers, finance and legal professionals — is a DSE user the moment their screen use passes the daily hour-or-more threshold.
There is no single official count of “DSE users” in the UK, because the regulations define the category by behaviour rather than by job title, and no national statistics body counts it directly. What the data does let us do is size the fast-growing edge of that population: the workers whose DSE duty now has to be met at a kitchen table or spare-room desk rather than a managed office. As of June 2023, the ONS estimated that around 10% of GB employees worked from home all of the time and about 29% did so some of the time — roughly four in ten employees doing at least some of their DSE work outside a conventional workplace. The share doing it in a hybrid pattern has kept climbing since.
One clarification on scope. This page is about the DSE user population and whether employers are assessing them — it is not an ill-health page. The musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and back, neck and upper-limb conditions that poor workstation set-up can cause are covered as case-count statistics on our sister site’s MSD statistics page; homeworking-related stress sits on our work-related stress statistics page. Here the focus is prevalence and compliance behaviour.
How many UK workers are hybrid or home working?
28% of working adults in Great Britain were hybrid working in Jan–Mar 2025 — the highest proportion since the ONS began tracking the measure, and a level that has risen steadily since March 2022 (ONS, Who has access to hybrid working in Great Britain?, published 11 June 2025). “Hybrid” here means splitting working time between home and a workplace; it sits alongside the roughly 10% who work from home all of the time.
Access is far from evenly spread. In the same Jan–Mar 2025 data, full-time workers were nearly twice as likely to hybrid work as part-time workers (34% vs 18%), and hybrid working was concentrated among higher earners: 45% of workers earning £50,000 or more hybrid worked, against just 8% of those earning under £20,000. It also skewed by age, peaking at 36% among workers aged 30–49 and falling to 19% among those aged 16–29.
The occupational and sector patterns are just as stark, and they matter for DSE because they map almost exactly onto screen-based work. Drawing on the ONS’s Who are the hybrid workers? article (published 11 November 2024, covering Apr–Jun 2024 data), managers, directors and senior officials had the highest hybrid rate at 45%, against just 3% in elementary and caring, leisure and other service occupations. By sector, hybrid working reached 49% in information and communication and 42% in professional, scientific and technical activities — the most screen-intensive parts of the economy — but only around 4% in accommodation and food service.
| Group | Hybrid-working rate | Data period |
|---|---|---|
| All working adults (GB) | 28% | Jan–Mar 2025 |
| Degree-holders vs no qualifications | 41% vs 4% | Jan–Mar 2025 |
| Aged 30–49 vs 16–29 | 36% vs 19% | Jan–Mar 2025 |
| Earning £50k+ vs under £20k | 45% vs 8% | Jan–Mar 2025 |
| Full-time vs part-time | 34% vs 18% | Jan–Mar 2025 |
| Managers/directors vs elementary roles | 45% vs 3% | Apr–Jun 2024 |
| IT & communication sector | 49% | Apr–Jun 2024 |
| Accommodation & food service | ~4% | Apr–Jun 2024 |
A note on coverage: the ONS hybrid-working series is based on Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and draws on labour-market surveys; the exact reference period differs between articles, which is why the figures above are labelled by quarter rather than pooled.
What share of employers actually offer hybrid working?
74% of UK organisations report having hybrid working in place, and 91% offer some form of flexible working, according to the CIPD’s Flexible and hybrid working practices in 2025 report (published 15 July 2025, based on 2,050 employers and 5,017 employees). The near-universal flexible-working figure confirms that DSE-relevant home and hybrid arrangements are no longer a niche; they are a standard feature of the UK employment relationship.
The direction of travel, though, is towards more structured on-site time. The 74% hybrid figure is down from 84% in a comparable 2023 survey, and 51% of organisations now require staff to be on-site a minimum number of days per week — most commonly three — with a further 14% mandating certain days per month (CIPD, 2025). For DSE compliance this is a double-edged shift: return-to-office mandates bring more workers back under a managed office workstation, but the persistence of hybrid patterns means most of those same workers still have a home workstation that the employer’s duty continues to cover.
Are employers actually assessing home workstations?
The evidence points to a persistent assessment gap: in one survey of 897 UK employees working at least two days a week from home, only about 1 in 5 had received an in-person workstation assessment, and only 36% received any employer help or guidance on setting up their workstation at all (IOSH Magazine, Home workers lack DSE support, survey finds, published January 2020). That figure predates the mass shift to hybrid working, so it should be read as an illustration of how far practice can lag the duty rather than as a current national rate — but the direction it points is exactly the concern: the DSE user population moved into the home faster than the assessment regime followed.
The reason this matters is that the legal duty did not move with it — it was always there. The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992, as amended in 2002, require the employer to assess each workstation, and the HSE is explicit that this applies to home and hybrid set-ups. The worker can be asked to complete a self-assessment of their home workstation, but the responsibility to ensure that assessment is suitable and sufficient — and that any problems it flags are put right — stays with the employer. A generic template filed remotely and never followed up does not discharge the duty.
The gap tends to open in three places: home workstations are assessed once (if at all) and never reviewed as conditions change; hybrid workers get an office assessment but not a home one, when the duty covers both; and equipment shortfalls flagged in a self-assessment are logged but not acted on.
What does the law require employers to do?
The DSE regulations set out four core employer duties: assess workstations, provide eye and eyesight tests on request, plan the work so DSE use is broken up by breaks or changes of activity, and provide health-and-safety training and information (HSE, Working safely with display screen equipment). The duty is owed to every DSE user, whether they work in the office, at home, or across both.
Two points are frequently misunderstood. First, workers must never be charged for the equipment or measures the assessment shows are required — the cost of meeting the standard falls on the employer, not the worker. Second, the eye-test entitlement is specific: a DSE user is entitled to a sight test paid for by the employer on request, and to the basic cost of any corrective appliance needed specifically for screen work. What the regulations do not do is require the employer to furnish a home office in full; the duty is to ensure the workstation actually used meets the standard, which in practice means supplying or contributing to specific items — a chair, monitor, keyboard or footrest — where the home set-up would otherwise fall short.
Employers with five or more employees must record the significant findings of their risk assessments. For a step-by-step walk-through of how a compliant DSE workstation assessment is carried out, see our DSE risk assessment guide; for home-working specifically, our working from home risk assessment page covers the wider picture beyond the screen. The MSD case-count evidence that sits behind the whole duty is summarised on the manual-handling network’s MSD statistics page.
Does the employer have to pay for home-working equipment?
The employer must pay for whatever the workstation needs to meet the DSE standard, but is not obliged to kit out a home office in full. The regulations don’t require an employer to buy a home worker’s desk, broadband or general furniture; what they require is that the workstation the worker actually uses satisfies the regulatory standards for screen, keyboard, chair, work surface, lighting and environment. The practical effect is the same in most cases — where a home set-up wouldn’t otherwise meet the duty, employers typically supply or contribute to the specific items that close the gap, and the worker is never charged for them.
This is where the assessment does its work: it identifies which items a given home workstation genuinely needs. An assessment that flags an unsuitable dining chair used for eight hours a day of screen work creates an obligation to remedy it; an assessment never carried out simply leaves that obligation undocumented until something goes wrong.
Frequently asked questions
Who counts as a DSE user under UK law?
Anyone who uses display screen equipment daily for continuous periods of an hour or more. HSE guidance frames it as regular, sustained use as a significant part of normal work — which captures most office-based roles. The definition applies identically to permanent home workers and to hybrid workers who split their week between home and office.
Do employers have to do a DSE assessment for home and hybrid workers?
Yes. The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 (amended 2002) apply to home and hybrid workstations just as fully as to office ones, and the HSE says so explicitly. Workers can complete a self-assessment, but the employer remains responsible for ensuring it is suitable and sufficient and that any issues are fixed. Hybrid workers have two workstations, and both are covered.
How many UK workers are hybrid or home working?
28% of working adults in Great Britain were hybrid working in Jan–Mar 2025 — the highest on record (ONS). Separately, around 10% of GB employees worked from home all of the time and about 29% some of the time as of June 2023, meaning roughly four in ten employees do at least some of their DSE work away from a conventional workplace.
Does the employer have to pay for home-working equipment like a desk or chair?
The employer must pay for whatever the DSE assessment shows the workstation needs to meet the required standard, and workers must never be charged for it. There is no blanket duty to furnish a home office in full — no obligation to buy general furniture or broadband — but where a home set-up wouldn’t otherwise satisfy the duty, employers typically supply or contribute to a chair, monitor, keyboard or footrest.
Is there an official count of DSE users in the UK?
No. Because the regulations define a DSE user by behaviour (daily screen use of an hour or more) rather than by job title, no national statistics body counts the category directly. The best available proxy is the hybrid- and home-working data from the ONS, which sizes the fast-growing part of the population whose DSE duty now has to be met at home.
When is the DSE and hybrid-working data next updated?
The ONS publishes hybrid-working articles roughly annually, the CIPD’s Flexible and Hybrid Working report each summer (July) and its Good Work Index each June. This page is re-checked every June–July and updated when new figures are released.
Related guides
- Risk Assessment Statistics UK: Compliance Facts & Data
- Work-Related Stress Statistics UK: HSE Facts & Data
- HSE Enforcement Statistics UK: Fines, Prosecutions & Notices
- DSE risk assessment: workstation duties for office, home and hybrid workers
- Working from home risk assessment: the duty for home and hybrid workers
- How often should a risk assessment be reviewed?
Sources & references
- ONS — Who has access to hybrid working in Great Britain? (Jan–Mar 2025 data, published 11 June 2025)
- ONS — Who are the hybrid workers? (Apr–Jun 2024 data, published 11 November 2024)
- CIPD — Flexible and hybrid working practices in 2025 (published 15 July 2025)
- CIPD — Good Work Index 2025 (published June 2025)
- HSE — Working safely with display screen equipment (DSE)
- HSE — Working with display screen equipment (DSE) at home
- legislation.gov.uk — Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992
- IOSH Magazine — Home workers lack DSE support, survey finds (published January 2020)
The DSE user population keeps growing, and every home and hybrid workstation carries the same assessment duty as an office desk. Learn the HSE’s method with RoSPA-approved risk assessment training.
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Mark writes about workplace health & safety, risk assessment and accredited online training for Risk Assessment Training, part of Online CPD Academy.