The Cabinet Office is planning to reduce the size of its workforce by a third, with around 1,200 staff set to leave the department over the next two years.
Cat Little, the Cabinet Office permanent secretary, announced plans to civil servants today that will see the department restructured to make it smaller, more strategic, and more specialist.
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.
CSW understands that more than 500 voluntary exit scheme applications have already been supported by the department, more than the 400 originally planned.
Teams in the department are to be restructured in the coming months, with roles removed where they are no longer required, and impacted staff given the support they need to fill other vacancies.
Alongside the 1,200 planned departures, around 900 people have already left the department since Labour came to power, including those who moved when the Government Digital Service transferred to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
These combined reductions of 2,100 would result in the central Cabinet Office headcount dropping from 6,500 in December 2024 to 4,400 two years from now.
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 also planning to streamline its 40 business units into six leadership groups.
It is also looking to retune its main focuses onto: delivering the missions and 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.
The Cabinet Office expects to generate savings of £110m a year by 2028 through the restructure of the department and other reforms.
In the last eight years, the Cabinet Office has grown the most out of any government department, going from having 2,180 civil servants in 2016 to to 6,455 in 2024: a 196% increase. Its agencies have grown from having 770 officials in 2016 to 4,075 in 2024, a 429% rise. Some of this growth can be explained by the 2017 switch of more than 2,000 staff from HMRC to Cabinet Office to centralise the HR function.
‘Blunt cuts’ could undermine government’s reform plans, unions warn
Responding to the reports, civil service unions warned the cuts, in the name of reform, 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: “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.
“Blunt cuts of this scale will make it harder to play that role and could impact on delivery across government.”
Clancy said Prospect will be seeking assurance from the Cabinet Office that there will be no compulsory redundancies.
PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote added: "Our members in the Cabinet Office should be focused on driving the positive change promised by the government. It is difficult to understand how a threat to their livelihoods will help that focus. We will be negotiating hard to ensure that their needs are taken care of."