The Cabinet Office is to cut 400 jobs as it moves to a “smaller, clearer structure”, it has been announced.
On Wednesday, it emerged that ministers were expected to shrink the size of the civil service as part of an efficiency drive, with more than 10,000 roles set to go.
The Cabinet Office, which is responsible for a range of functions across government, has 6,315 full-time staff. Its permanent secretary, Cat Little, told workers in a call on Thursday morning that 400 civil servant roles would go as part of a voluntary exit scheme.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “We are reforming the way the Cabinet Office works, moving to a smaller, clearer structure.
“Our strategic plan will remove duplication and unnecessary bureaucracy, empower teams and individuals to be creative and innovative in their work and improve the delivery of Cabinet Office core activities.
We will create a smaller, more effective Cabinet Office that can coordinate delivery across government under the plan for change. Throughout the process we will engage with staff on any changes made.”
On Wednesday, sources told the Guardian there was an acceptance that the civil service had become too big and unwieldy after expanding owing to the demands of Brexit and the Covid pandemic.
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has ordered departments to find 5% cuts to their budgets as part of a spending review, with insiders saying job cuts were inevitable.
The civil service was made up of about 490,000 people when Gordon Brown left office in 2010 and was subsequently cut to about 380,000 after years of David Cameron and George Osborne’s squeeze on Whitehall during the austerity years.
However, it rose steadily during Brexit and the pandemic to reach its current level of 513,000. Last year, the civil service grew by nearly 5%.
