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More than 10,000 civil service jobs are set to be cut under ministers' plans to deliver 5 per cent savings for their departments in a spending review, according to government figures.
Ministers are looking to roll out voluntary redundancy programs across a range of departments to achieve the savings called for by Chancellor Rachel Reeves as part of her comprehensive spending review.
The number of employees in the civil service exceeded 513,000 employees this year, an increase of 34 percent over 2016 levels, and the eighth consecutive year in which the total number has increased.
However, plans to cut the overall number of civil servants risk further impacting morale among officials after Sir Keir Starmer declared last week that “many people in Whitehall are taking comfort in a tepid bath of targeted decline”.
The Prime Minister appeared to back away from that sentiment on Tuesday with a letter to all officials praising their “dedication and professionalism,” while blaming “bureaucratic hurdles, silos, and operational processes” for any poor performance.
Some departments have already indicated the expected size of their cuts. The Ministry of Defense is considering cuts of 10 per cent to its 56,800-strong civil service workforce during Parliament, its Permanent Secretary David Williams told MPs at the Defense Select Committee last month.
Echoing Defense Secretary John Healey's comments that the department must become “leaner,” Williams said productivity gains would smooth out some expected reductions in civilian headcount. He also stressed that some areas, such as digital defence, will need to see a higher level of staffing.
In a speech on Monday on public sector reform, Pat McFadden, the minister responsible for the Cabinet Office, said “technology must help us become more productive and productive” in the civil service.
Greater use of artificial intelligence in tasks such as drafting correspondence and taking meeting minutes would reduce the need for some administrative staff, Whitehall figures said.
However, McFadden – who will not be publicly asked questions about the swelling civil servant population this week – does not plan to impose top-down cuts or hiring freezes in other departments, like the last Conservative administration.
“We're not going to pick an arbitrary number and put a cap on it, because we know what happened when you tried that before: the government ended up spending too much on consultants,” one government official said.
Labor has pledged to halve state spending on external consultants.
“There is a general feeling that we cannot continue to grow,” the person added. “The number of civil servants has soared in the last few years… The reality is that departments will have to find a way to deal with spending cuts.
Reeves set out the 2026-29 spending envelope in the budget in October. The spending review, which began on Tuesday and is scheduled to end next June, will see ministers bargaining over every item in their ministries' budgets.
Whitehall figures say there is no talk of compulsory redundancies at present.
In addition, small but strategic changes in the machinery of government are also expected in the coming months. The Cabinet Office has already transferred the Government Digital Service and other data modules to the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Last week, Kat Little, permanent secretary in the Cabinet Office, announced her intention to “go back to what the core parts should be” of her department.
“We have ended up being the place where, if no one else raises their hand and wants to do something at the centre, it comes to us,” she told MPs on the public administration committee.
