The Cabinet Office is to shed a third of its jobs as part of a drive to shrink the Civil Service, the government has announced.
Around 1,200 posts will be lost under plans announced to civil servants today, with another 900 being transferred to other departments.
The 2,100 job cuts represent just under a third of the 6,500 “core staff” at the Cabinet Office, the strategic centre of the British state.
A Cabinet Office source said: “Leading by example, we are creating a leaner and more focused Cabinet Office that will drive work to reshape the state and deliver our plan for change.
“This Government will target resources at frontline services – with more teachers in classrooms, extra hospital appointments and police back on the beat.”
But Mike Clancy, General Secretary of Prospect, a trade union representing specialist, digital, technical and scientific civil servants, said cuts of this scale would make it harder for the Cabinet Office to play its role.
“The Cabinet Office has an important role to play operating the machinery of government, driving efficiency and reform, and ensuring other departments are fully aligned with and able to deliver the government’s missions,” he said.
“Blunt cuts of this scale will make it harder to play that role and could impact on delivery across government.
“Prospect will engage with the Cabinet Office throughout this process and will seek an assurance that there will be no compulsory redundancies.”
Cat Little, permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office, told civil servants in an all-staff call on Thursday that the department would become more specialist and therefore better able to serve the public.
Around 540 voluntary redundancy applications have already been accepted after the launch of a scheme in January, but the department is understood to expect more voluntary departures as teams are restructured over the coming months.
Thursday’s announcement follows Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to slash the cost of bureaucracy, reducing the size of the Civil Service and creating a more “agile” and productive state.
As well as abolishing quangos such as NHS England, ministers have committed to increasing the proportion of civil servants working in digital and data roles, creating a workforce “fit for the future”.
In last month’s spring statement, Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed plans to cut Civil Service running costs by 15% by the end of the decade.
Meanwhile, a poll published on Thursday by YouGov suggested 64% of MPs believed the Civil Service is too risk-averse and closed to new ideas, while 62% thought Whitehall worked too slowly.
Trade unions have warned against significant cuts to the Civil Service while the Prime Minister’s former chief of staff Baroness Sue Gray used her maiden speech in the House of Lords to urge caution on reducing the size of the Civil Service.
A former civil servant herself, Baroness Gray said her old colleagues were “central to the Government’s and the nation’s mission to bring back growth into our economy and security to our society”.
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