Sunak plans to cut back 'bloated post-Covid state' with civil service shakeup
Tory leadership contender Rishi Sunak has revealed his plan to "shake up" the "bloated post-Covid state" by slashing the number of jobs in the civil service.
As part of the plan, Sunak said he would require senior civil servants to spend a year working outside of Whitehall if they want a promotion.
The Sunak campaign said the plans for the Civil Service include cutting the "back office" headcount, changing pay rewards from being based on longevity to performance, bringing back a version of the suspended fast-stream graduate recruitment programme, and championing the use of apprenticeships.
The FDA union, which represents senior civil servants, described the proposal as "ill-thought out rhetoric that doesn’t survive the first hour of scrutiny".
When Sunak was still chancellor, the government said it intended to reduce the size of the civil service by around 90,000, in order to return it to 2016 staffing levels.
But the Sunak campaign has not committed to a figure for changes to the total headcount.
A key part of the plan is to "tackle civil service groupthink” and deepen understanding of business by ensuring all senior civil servants spend at least a year of their career on secondments or external placements outside of Whitehall or in industry before they can receive further promotion.
Sunak also said he wanted to send more civil servants outside of London.
He said: "As chancellor I saw parts of the British civil service at its best, delivering world-class Covid support schemes in record time. But the bloated post-Covid state is in need of a shake-up so I will create a sharper, leaner civil service.
"I’ll press ahead with cuts to back office civil service headcount, recruiting and retaining the brightest and best.
"I’ll strengthen civil servants’ experience beyond Whitehall, allow ministers to bring in more external expertise, and bring in performance pay so we have a truly Rolls Royce service delivering for and accountable to the British people."
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FDA general secretary Dave Penman accused Sunak of not understanding "the basics of how the civil service operates".
He said: "With Brexit still a work in progress, huge backlogs in public services from the pandemic, a new war on mainland Europe, a cost-of-living crisis, and now a looming recession, the country needs a prime minister who can equip the civil service with the resources and skills it needs to meet the challenges ahead, not ill-thought out rhetoric that doesn’t survive the first hour of scrutiny."
Penman pointed out that pay has not been linked to longevity for nearly two decades.
Sunak’s leadership rival Liz Truss has already promised a "war on Whitehall waste", but she abandoned plans to cut £8.8 billion from public sector pay outside of London after a backlash.
Sunak has made fiscal responsibility a core part of his campaign and cutting back in Whitehall is seen as a core part of his hope to reduce the deficit.
The government purse is expected to be stretched over the coming months as inflation increases costs of public services, a likely recession lowers tax receipts and demand from the population for more cost-of-living support.