Mr Clarke said last month that increases in the number of civil servants had become “impossible to justify in the long run and something we are determined to reverse”. Recent increases in the number of employees have completely reversed the cuts in the austerity era. In a speech outlining plans for a slimmer Whitehall, he said: “Through a meticulous focus on efficiency, better processes and better alignment of our people with our priorities, we will reduce the number of public service employees to sustainable levels in the long run. , and this will be the focus of the years leading up to the next Expenditure Review ”. However, the FDA warns that many of the roles will be difficult to reverse due to Covid delays and that power has been permanently shifted from Brussels after Brexit. “A lot of medical staff has been hired to deal with Covid and now you have his legacy,” Mr Penman said, noting the delays in health and the courts. “What’s very frustrating about some of the things that Rees-Mogg and Clarke have been saying is that they’re focusing on this number of civil servants that has grown over the last five or six years, and really because of the fact that public service demands have increased. . ” The government wants to move 22,000 civil servants from London by 2030. However, the expansion in recent years has largely focused on London as more staff have been hired to assist in politics. The disproportionate increases in the capital came despite promises by ministers to move decision-makers out of London as part of a leveling effort.
Whitehall faces radical upheaval as minister promises ‘quiet revolution’
By Tom Reese Whitehall’s mandarins could be forgiven for feeling a little safer after Dominic Cummings’s sudden departure from the heart of government. The former chief adviser to the prime minister was constantly targeting a general overhaul of the public service, calling the bureaucracy “an idea for history books” and calling for the removal of its permanent secretaries. “What SW1 needs is not more impetus for ‘identity’ and ‘diversity’ from Oxbridge humanities graduates, but more genuine cognitive diversity,” he said in one of the many dissertations he started against mandarins before leaving. in November 2020. But while the threat of a Cummings-led riot has disappeared, the idea of a sweeping Whitehall riot has overtaken the # 10 adviser’s reign. Two-time Treasury Secretary Simon Clark promises a “quiet revolution” in Whitehall after Michael Gove launched plans last year to reform the government. As civil servants face a rude awakening after a huge increase in staffing, a London-based lifestyle and years of work at home, there are concerns that the unrest could disrupt the flow of government business. Speaking at the Institute of Economic Affairs’s small think tank late last month, Clarke outlined his ambitions to cut fat from the state and bring civil servants back to pre-Covid and even pre-Brexit levels. .
