Earlier this year, Jacob Rees Mogg announced draconian cuts in the civil service head-count. As Civil Service World pointed out, much of the increase in recent years has been necessary because work which is carried out in Brussels on behalf of all EU nations has had to be duplicated in London because of Brexit. One would expect many jobs necessary for the transition to an isolationist position to become redundant. However, it has become clear that Mogg is intent a crude cull across all Deparments.
What this means in practice is shown by the increasing delays at the Passport Office. These have become so serious that even on a day when the threats to Boris Johnson's office were reaching a crisis, questions to the Welsh Secretary were predominantly about the obstacles to travel for business or vacation that they presented.
Crude, untargeted forced redundancies do more harm than good, though they may garner approving headlines in the Daily Mail. It is to be hoped that the "caretaker" takes a more sensible look at civil service tasks and morale.
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Yet another scandal caused by shortage of experienced staff has come to light: the £1.46bn underpaid to pensioners. Steve Webb, former Liberal Democrat pensions minister under the coalition, points out that women will bear the brunt of the errors.
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