The party is continuing its work preparing for government with a new announcement this morning.
Mr Kruger pledged 68,000 job cuts (Image: Getty)
Reform UK has pledged to cut thousands of civil servants from the government payroll in order to save taxpayers billions and boost efficiency. Danny Kruger, the former Tory MP put in charge of preparing Reform for government, has set out plans to cull Whitehall by 68,500 jobs.
At a press conference this morning he said this would save taxpayers over £5 billion every year once fully implemented, and said he anticipates implementing the change over two years. The level of job cuts would equate to around 13% of the total civil service headcount, and reduce total staffing costs by 17%. The cuts will be targeted largely at those working on policy, communication and HR.
68,000 jobs will be cut, 13% of the civil service (Image: Getty)
Mr Kruger said HR reductions would amount to a whopping 67% under his plan, while communication jobs would be culled by an equally large 60%.
Reform would also introduce a 400% rise in the bonus pool for civil servants to help attract the brightest and best into government and incentivise the best performing mandarins.
It would also shake up the existing system of civil service promotions, which currently incentivise longevity over performance.
Mr Kruger emphasised that the job cuts would not fall on frontline operational roles, citing border control, DWP assessors, Home Office caseworkers and HMRC tax investigators as examples.
The party added that staffing in some departments may actually increase to support the delivery of their policies, including Operation Restoring Justice, PIP claim re-assessments and refugee status re-assessments.
Reform said: “The Civil Service has become bloated, overstaffed, and has failed to deliver what is expected by the British people.
Reform is preparing for government (Image: Getty)
“A Reform Government will make the Civil Service lean, high performing, agile and effective. It will be capable of attracting and retaining the country’s finest talent. Our Preparation for Government work will ultimately cover the future size and shape of the Civil Service, ensuring more effective ministerial control, and modernising how it operates.
“We are now able to announce the first phase of this work – focused on cutting back-office bloat and incentivising high performance.”
A policy document published alongside this morning’s press conference said that while governments repeatedly promise civil service job cuts, they often fail to see them through due to “lack of political courage”.
Today’s announcement is just phase one of Reform’s plan for reforming the way government works, with further announcements set to come.
