Boris Johnson’s plan to cut more than 90,000 civil servants over the next three years runs the risk of having “adverse impacts” on public services, according to a leaked government note.
The confidential guide issued to Whitehall departments seen by the Financial Times says executives should mitigate the effects of the cuts “as much as possible”, but admits that some departments are likely to have to cut back on their plans.
“As far as possible, departments should try to mitigate any adverse impacts on public service delivery and broader government priorities. However, it is recognized that in some cases departments will need to consider reprioritization,” he said. the note.
Johnson last month announced a pledge to cut the number of civil servants, a right-wing Conservative-backed measure that helped secure the Prime Minister’s narrow victory in Monday’s censure vote.
In a speech aimed at re-establishing his administration, Johnson said the decision to “prune back” Whitehall departments could be achieved “without compromising the public services they provide.”
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Whitehall experts, however, said the talk of “reprioritization” pointed to the inevitability of cuts affecting utilities at a time when the cost of living crisis was increasing demand.
One said it was “impossible” to achieve such a drastic reduction in staff numbers by 2024-25 while maintaining all front-line services such as prisons, parole, border controls, work centers and passport processing and driver’s licenses. , at current levels.
“It is accepted that the government of the day has the perfect right to reduce the state to the size it deems appropriate, but it cannot escape the consequences of doing so,” said a source who was working on the cuts.
The document, issued by the Treasury and the Cabinet Office, orders departments to hand out a detailed brochure for staff reductions of 20, 30 and 40 per cent before June 30. Final decisions are expected in the fall.
The note also states that no area is out of bounds: “There are no officials or groups of officials who are exempt from these returns, regardless of the work they perform.”
About half of the staff provide front-line services and four out of five are based outside London. The average salary is £ 40,109.82 and the government says it hopes to achieve immediate savings of £ 3.5 billion by reducing the civil service to 2016 levels.
The government currently employs 475,000 people, compared to a low of 384,000 in 2016. The highest growth since then has been in the Ministry of Justice, Interior and the Department of Labor and Pensions.
Lord Bob Kerslake, head of the civil service during the austerity cuts, said the cuts were as if they had lasting impacts.
“We have big delays in the passport office, in the criminal justice system, massive delays in the courts and for driving licenses we have big delays. [frontline services] “I don’t think we’ll see a recovery,” he said.
The Institute for Government think tank said the cuts required roughly the same levels of staff reductions implemented during six years of austerity, but that they have been done in just half the time.
Rhys Clyne, a senior researcher at the IfG, said the reductions could not be achieved through painless efficiencies for back office functions.
“They will have to include some front-line roles in the scope of the cuts. They will also have to include roles in the fund office that the government has said separately they want to prioritize,” he said.
Experts warned that the return to pre-Brexit staffing levels came when Brexit and government policies required an expansion of government payroll, for example, to provide five new prisons that ministers say will be needed. after hiring 20,000 police officers.
Jonathan Slater, a former permanent secretary of the civil service, said that reducing prison-staff ratios “results in more violence, more suicides and more drugs in prison.”
A government spokesman said: “It is crucial that all aspects of taxpayer spending demonstrate efficiency and value for money. It was right to grow the civil service to deliver Brexit and deal with the pandemic, but now we have to bring it back to 2016 staffing levels and we have asked all government departments to state how this could be achieved. “