Covid jobs will be among the first to be cut from government departments, it is understood, as the UK’s largest Civil Service trade unions threaten a national strike over proposed cuts.
The Telegraph understands that those leading the drive to reduce the size of the Civil Service are looking at shrinking units that led the UK’s response to the pandemic.
The pandemic led to an increase in civil servants working on pandemic-related activities such as Covid-19 taskforces, Test and Trace, and the Government’s new public health body.
On Friday, Jacob Rees-Mogg said that the number of civil servants needed to be reduced to 2016 levels, adding that numbers had increased due to taking on “specific tasks” such as the pandemic and Brexit.
“There’s been a reason for that increase, but we’re now trying to get back to normal,” he told Sky News.
A senior government source familiar with the plans said: “Some civil servants are public-facing and necessary. But in other areas, you can utilise technology.
“A lot of people who are working on Covid, for instance, are not needed now.”
Last month, The Guardian reported that more than 800 staff are due to be lost from the UK Health Security Agency, just over a year after it was announced by Matt Hancock.
The move would cut around 40 per cent of the current 2,000 members of staff working on public health and Covid-19 policy.
Certain teams within the Department of Health and Social Care are responsible for some of the Covid-19 response, such as those working on vaccine and booster programmes.
On Thursday, Boris Johnson told Cabinet colleagues that they had one month to come up with plans for slimming down their own departments, as part of the drive to cut officials by a fifth.
This would reduce the number of civil servants by around 90,000.
‘Pandemic response teams already being wound down’
While each secretary of state is responsible for his or her own plan, an overarching policy of a recruitment freeze is set to be enacted.
A source told The Telegraph that this will “take advantage of natural churn, which will drive down numbers voluntarily”.
The Telegraph understands that work has already started to wind down the UK’s pandemic response teams, with the Cabinet Office’s Covid-19 Task Force disbanded last month after almost two years.
Kate Josephs, the former director-general of the unit which helped write Covid laws, was fined last month over her “boozy” leaving party in the Cabinet Office.
The Competition and Markets Authority is also believed to have wrapped up its Covid-19 taskforce last year.
Unions warn of ‘consequences’
It comes as the UK’s two largest Civil Service unions, representing more than 200,000 members, threatened a national strike in response to the move.
The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) and Prospect both did not rule out strike action over the Government’s position.
Mark Serwotka, the PCS general secretary, said that the Government’s response to backlogs for passports and driving licences was to simply “sack the people who are working hard” to clear the problems.
“Cuts have consequences,” he said.
“Not just on those whose jobs are being sacrificed to throw red meat to the dwindling number of Conservative voters, but on everyone who relies on the services our members provide.
“The Government complains about longer delays for passports and driving licences at the same time as sacking the people who are working so hard to clear the backlog.
“Our members will not be the scapegoats for a failing government. We have our conference in 10 days’ time – taking national strike action is very much on the table.”
Mike Clancy, Prospect’s general secretary, said: “The Government must stop chasing headlines to distract from its failure to address the cost of living crisis facing workers in all sectors of the economy.
“We will be talking with our members about the campaign ahead to save their jobs and to protect the services the public rely on.”
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( Information from telegraph.co.uk was used in this report. To Read More, click here )
