UK ministers to scrap target of cutting 91,000 civil service jobs

Read More

UK ministers are planning to scrap the target of cutting 91,000 civil service jobs and resume recruitment of graduates through the fast-stream scheme, in a reversal of Boris Johnson-era policies.

Two Whitehall sources told the Guardian that the announcements were likely to be issued to officials internally.

The policies brought in by Jacob Rees-Mogg, a Cabinet Office minister under Johnson, were widely criticised at the time for being arbitrary and counterproductive. However, one government source said there were concerns that the target could be replaced by budget cuts at the autumn statement, which departments will find difficult.

The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, is giving his long-awaited statement on 17 November, which is likely to include both tax rises and spending cuts as he seeks to fill a ?35bn hole in the public finances.

Morale among some civil servants worsened under Johnson’s premiership, with hostile briefings from senior government figures criticising the numbers of officials working from home, the prospect of a below-inflation, 2% pay rise and uncertainty about their future due to the 91,000 job cuts target.

Johnson wrote to civil servants in May, arguing that the government had to reduce its costs “just as many families are doing”. He said that after Covid and Brexit, “we no longer require the state to have the same colossal presence in people’s lives”.

Liz Truss’s administration sought to water down the proposals, given the high upfront cost of redundancies, which could have reached several billion pounds, and instead set its sights on making more gradual job cuts by introducing recruitment freezes.

But a week after Rishi Sunak entered No 10 as prime minister, sources said he was poised to abolish the target completely.

The civil service fast-stream programme, which recruits abour 1,500 university-leavers a year, is also set to resume. When it was initially shut down, ministers were warned that the move “risks cutting off the supply of people who have the digital and project management skills to improve public services”.