Ministers planning to cut more than 10,000 civil service jobs

One Cabinet Office source said departments would have to make some ‘very hard choices’ about headcount if they were going to stay within budgets set by the Treasury. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

Ministers are planning to cut more than 10,000 civil service jobs as Whitehall departments battle to stay within spending limits under a new government efficiency drive, the Guardian has learned.

Multiple sources said 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.