The Cabinet Office is cutting almost a third of its jobs as ministers seek to push forward plans for civil service reform.
Officials at the Cabinet Office are being told today that 2,100 of their 6,500 jobs will be cut or moved to other parts of government over the next two years.
Cat Little, the Cabinet Office’s top civil servant, said she wanted the department, under chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden MP, to be “more strategic, specialist, and smaller”.
Together with other reforms, the Cabinet Office said the cuts would save £110m a year by 2028.
The Cabinet Office’s role is to support the prime minister and co-ordinate the work of other departments which have more specific remits.
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Civil service union Prospect warned “blunt cuts of this scale” were likely to harm delivery across government.
The 1,200 exits in the next two years include those who leave through the voluntary redundancy drive launched in January and the mutually agreed exits scheme announced in March.
It is thought that more than 500 voluntary exit scheme applications have already been supported by the department, more than the 400 originally planned.
A restructure in coming months will see roles removed where it is deemed they are no longer required, and staff given support to enable them to fill fresh vacancies.
Alongside the 1,200 planned departures, around 900 people have already left the department since the new government came to power in July 2024, including those who moved when the Government Digital Service transferred to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
The Cabinet Office headcount will be about 4,400 in two years’ time, 2,100 fewer than the 6,500 in December 2024.
The figures do not include those on the Fast Stream and government commercial experts (teams who are on the Cabinet Office payroll but work in other government departments), or staff employed within the Cabinet Office’s arm’s-length bodies.
Under the restructure, the Cabinet Office is set to streamline its 40 business units into six leadership groups. It is looking to focus on five main goals: delivering the Plan for Change; strengthening the UK’s international partnerships and security; supporting the union; good governance across the UK; and enhancing the safety and resilience of the UK.
Civil service unions warned the cuts could hinder Labour’s overall reform programme.
FDA assistant general secretary Lucille Thirlby said: “Civil servants are desperate for reform and refocusing the work of the Cabinet Office may be a good place to start. However – as we are seeing with the reorganisation of NHS England – there is a difference between reforming and cutting. The success of any reforms will depend on whether the scale of cuts undermine the reform.
“The Cabinet Office is instrumental in coordinating cross-government work. Cutting a third of the core department will impact the delivery of the government’s own agenda, including their Plan for Change. Ministers will now need to be honest about what the government will stop doing as a result of these cuts.”
Similarly, Mike Clancy, general secretary of Prospect, the trade union for specialist civil servants, said: “Blunt cuts of this scale will make it harder to play that role and could impact on delivery across government.”
Clancy said Prospect would be seeking assurance from the Cabinet Office that there will be no compulsory redundancies.
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