The UK government will aim to slash the number of civil servants by 10,000, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said ahead of Wednesday’s key statement on the public finances.
The Labour government will stick with its plan to lift real-terms spending in every year of this parliament, but prioritize where the money is allocated, with departments expected to make efficiency savings through better use of technology such as artificial intelligence, Reeves said.
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“I’m confident we can reduce civil servant numbers by 10,000,” the chancellor told Sky News in a Sunday morning interview. “During Covid there were big increases in the number of people working in the civil service; that was the right thing to do to respond to those challenges, but it’s not right that we just keep those numbers there forever.”
Asked for examples of tasks that could be replaced by technology, Reeves listed briefing roles and said the UK’s tax collecting office was already using AI to reduce fraud. UK newspaper reports overnight said Labour would ask the civil service to identify £2 billion worth of cuts.
Reeves will deliver her spring statement on Wednesday alongside updated forecasts for the economy produced by the Office for Budget Responsibility. The headroom that allows the chancellor to meet her own fiscal rules has been wiped out since her Oct. 30 budget, due to weak growth and high borrowing costs. She is expected to cut plans for government spending and welfare in order to rebuild the headroom, having promised to avoid further tax rises.
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