As most public sectors are continuing to work and provide essential services in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, the government does not anticipate that this scheme will be used by a lot of public sector organisations. Where employers, public sector or otherwise, receive public funding for staff costs, that funding will continue and employers are expected to continue to pay their staff in the usual way, so any organisation receiving public funding should not need to furlough staff in the same way. However, some situations may arise where the staff cannot be re-deployed to assist with the coronavirus response and in this instance the scheme may be appropriate for some staff.\r