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More than 10,000 civil service jobs are set to be cut under ministers’ plans to save departments 5% through a spending review, government figures show.
Ministers are considering rolling out a program of voluntary job cuts across a range of departments to achieve the savings that Chancellor Rachel Reeves is calling for as part of a comprehensive review of spending.
The number of civil servants exceeded 513,000 this year, an increase of 34% compared to 2016 levels and the eighth consecutive year the total has increased.
Nevertheless, the civil service’s Plans to reduce the total number risk further weakening officer morale.
The Prime Minister appeared to contradict that sentiment in a letter to all officials on Tuesday, blaming poor performance on “bureaucratic hurdles, silos and processes”, while saying “commitment and praised the professionalism.
Some sectors have already indicated the expected scale of cuts. The Ministry of Defense is considering cutting its 56,800 civil service workforce by 10% during this parliamentary period, permanent secretary David Williams told MPs at the Defense Select Committee last month.
Echoing Secretary of Defense John Healey’s statement that the Department of Defense must become “leaner,” Williams said productivity gains would smooth out some of the expected civilian layoffs. Ta. He also emphasized that some areas, such as digital defense, will require higher-level personnel.
Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden said in a speech on public sector reform on Monday that technology should “help make civil servants more productive and productive”.
Whitehall officials say greater use of AI in tasks such as drafting correspondence and taking minutes of meetings could reduce the need for some administrative staff.
However, Mr McFadden will not publicly respond to questions this week about bloated civil service staff numbers, but he does not intend to impose top-down job cuts or freezes on hiring in other departments, as the previous Conservative government did.
“We’re not going to pick an arbitrary number and set a cap because we know what happened when it was tried before. The government We ended up spending a lot of money on consultants.”
Labor has vowed to halve state spending on external consultants.
“There is a general feeling that we cannot continue to grow,” the official added. “The number of civil servants has grown steadily in recent years. . . . The reality is that ministries will have to find ways to cope with spending cuts.”
Reeves set spending limits for 2026-2029 in his October budget proposal. The spending review, which begins on Tuesday and is due to end next June, will see ministers haggling over every item in the department’s budget.
Whitehall officials say there are currently no talks of forced redundancies.
Additionally, small but strategic changes in government structures are also expected in the coming months. The Cabinet Office has already transferred Government Digital Services and other data departments to the Department of Science and Technology.
Last week, Cabinet Office permanent secretary Cat Little announced her intention to “get back to what the core of what should be” is her department.
She told members of the Executive Committee: “We’ve gotten to the point where if we want something done at the center, even if no one else raises their hand, they come to us.”
