The confidential guidance issued to the Whitehall departments seen by the Financial Times says executives should mitigate the effects of the cuts “as much as possible”, but acknowledges that some departments may need to limit their plans. “As much as possible, departments should aim to mitigate any adverse effects on public service delivery and broader government priorities. “However, it is recognized that in some cases departments will have to consider redefining priorities,” the statement said. Johnson announced his promise to cut civil servants last month, a move backed by the Conservative right that helped the prime minister win a landslide victory in Monday’s no-confidence vote. In a speech aimed at restoring his administration, Johnson said the decision to “prune” Whitehall’s divisions could be made “without harming the public services they provide.”
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However, senior Whitehall experts said the talk of “redefining priorities” points to the inevitability of cuts affecting public services at a time when the cost-of-living crisis was driving demand. Some said it was “impossible” to achieve such rapid staff reductions by 2024-25, keeping all front-line services, such as prisons, surveillance, border controls, work centers and passport and driver processing, at current levels. “It is accepted that the government of the time has the perfect right to shrink the state to the size it deems appropriate, but it cannot escape the consequences of doing so,” said one of the experts working on the cuts. The document, issued by the Ministry of Finance and the Cabinet Office, instructs the departments to submit a detailed newsletter for staff reductions of 20, 30 and 40 percent by 30 June. Final decisions are expected in the fall. The note also states that no area is prohibited: “There are no civil servants or groups of civil servants who are exempt from these returns, regardless of the work they undertake.” About half of all civil servants provide frontline services and four in five are based outside London. The average salary is. 40,109.82 £ and the government says it hopes to achieve immediate savings of 3 3.5 billion by shrinking public service back to 2016 levels. The government currently employs 475,000 civil servants compared to the low of 384,000 in 2016. The largest increase since then has been in the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Labor and Pensions. Lord Bob Kerslake, head of public service during the austerity cuts, said the cuts seemed to have a lasting effect. “We have huge delays in the passport office, in the criminal justice system, huge delays in the courts and we have huge delays for driving licenses. If you cut [frontline services] “Besides, I do not think we will see a recovery,” he said. The Institute for Government Think Tank said the cuts required about the same levels of staff reductions applied during the six years of austerity, but only in half a year. Rhys Clyne, a senior researcher at IfG, said the reductions could not be achieved through painless efficiencies in support roles. “They have to include some front-line roles in the cut-off range. “They should also include back office roles that the government has separately stated it wants to prioritize.” Experts warn that the return to pre-Brexit staffing levels came as Brexit and government policies called for an extension of the government’s payroll, for example to staff 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 if the prisoner-to-staff ratio was reduced, “you have more violence, more suicides and more drugs in prison.” A government spokesman said: “It is vital that all aspects of taxpayers’ spending show efficiency and value for money. “It was right for the Civil Service to develop to succeed in Brexit and deal with the pandemic, but now we have to bring it back to the 2016 staffing levels and we have asked all government departments to determine how this can be achieved.”
