MINISTER REFUSES TO SAY HOW MANY CIVIL SERVICE JOBS ARE TO BE AXED IN EFFICIENCY DRIVE
PAT McFadden, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, has refused to put a number on the number of jobs to be axed in the Civil Service in a planned public sector efficiency drive.
He said on the Camilla Tominey Show on GB News: “I don’t want to set out a figure like that Camilla because it’s been done before, and it hasn’t worked.
“You might remember the Conservatives said they would cut the number of civil servants by 90,000 I believe it was, and then hiring went up.
“What I want to do is something different, which is to make sure that we get the best bang for the buck for the public to make sure that where people want to see more people, for example, teachers in the classroom or police officers on our streets, that we get the resources there.
“But we also use both new technology and good performance management to get the good civil servants, which is the vast majority of the people I work with, to do their jobs better.
“And where it’s not working out, where we can have a process where people leave. These are some of the reforms that we’ll be setting out this week.
‘It’s really important that the state reforms itself while the private sector is changing. If we think of the way that we do business in the private sphere, we can’t have a state left behind in all our interests, and that’s what I want to do.”
Asked why there cannot be a “considerable” cut in the number, he said: “I think we can bring the numbers down, and you’ve read out there, they happened under the Conservative government.
“I sort of asked myself, what was the intention behind that? And when I ask what’s behind the rise in that number, two things are always quoted to me. People say Brexit and they say COVID.
“Now I understand that after Brexit, there was probably some bureaucracy that used to be done in Europe is now being done in the UK, and we needed more people for that. That will be part of it.
“I also understand that we hired more people during COVID, but COVID was five years ago, and we’re long past the pandemic now. So nobody from the previous regime has really been able to explain to me why they hired an extra 130,000 people.
“I want to make sure that we get the best value for money for the taxpayer. The state has taken on some things it hasn’t done before. There have been some changes in policy, for example, and the probation service, which has meant bringing some things back in house that will explain some of it.
“But what’s really important is to get the best value for money for people, make sure these are good jobs that people want to do, and make sure that when we use public resources. It’s where the public really want to see it, and that’s why we fought the election, saying, let’s hire more teachers, let’s hire more police officers.
“Let’s make sure that when taxpayers are paying in to get a good outcome, that’s what we want to see.”
Asked if he wanted more civil servants back in offices, he said: “I’m a bit old fashioned on this Camilla, I have to say. I prefer people to be in the office, because I think they learn from one another better, and you get that friendship and social capital, and I think you do your job better.
“But we’re flexible about this. There are, of course, reasons why some people might want to work from home on some days, and that’s built into the system. But if you ask me, my own view, I quite like people being in the office.”
He was also asked about his view on marriage between first cousins and said: “Well, I am not aware of our plans to change the current law at the moment on that question.
“If we are planning to change the law, I promise I’ll come back on your program and talk to you about it, but as of today, I’m not aware that we’re planning a legal change on that issue.”
