The Cabinet Office will shrink in size by about a third, with about 1,200 jobs to go and another 900 transferred to other departments.
Staff in the department were told on Thursday that it would be reduced. The 1,200 job losses will involve voluntary redundancies and roles not being filled when people leave.
The cuts are part of what the government says is a drive to make the civil service more efficient, with substantially more than 10,000 roles likely to go in the next few years.
There are about 6,500 “core staff” at the Cabinet Office, which has a coordinating function across government and is at the strategic centre of Whitehall.
In its new form, the Cabinet Office will focus on delivering the prime minister’s core priorities, security, supporting the union, and good governance. It is aiming at cost savings of more than £110m a year by 2028, through restructuring, closing down non-essential programmes, and better use of artificial intelligence and technology.
A Cabinet Office source said: “Leading by example, we are creating a leaner and more focused Cabinet Office that will drive work to reshape the state and deliver our plan for change. This government will target resources at frontline services – with more teachers in classrooms, extra hospital appointments and police back on the beat.”
It was initially seeking 400 roles to go through voluntary redundancy but has already accepted 540 applications, with more expected.
Cat Little, the Cabinet Office permanent secretary, told civil servants in an all-staff call on Thursday that the department would become more specialist and therefore better able to serve the public.
The moves are part of Keir Starmer’s drive to make the state more efficient, and reflect a frustration among many ministers since entering government about the slow progress of attempted changes.
As well as abolishing quangos such as NHS England, ministers have committed to increasing the proportion of civil servants working in digital and data roles, creating a workforce “fit for the future”. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has announced plans to cut running costs in the civil service by 15% by the end of the decade.
Mike Clancy, the general secretary of the Prospect union, said: “Cuts to administration budgets sound like an easy win to save money while protecting frontline services. But unfortunately that is not how the public accounts work – administration covers absolutely essential functions.
“There is a real danger that the government is putting the cart before the horse, setting out a savings target before it has worked out the wider reform agenda. Reform should start with a conversation about what the government wants the civil service to do, not just what it wants it to cost.”
A poll published on Thursday by YouGov suggested 64% of MPs believed Whitehall was too risk-averse and closed to new ideas, while 62% thought Whitehall worked too slowly.
