Richard Tice, Deputy Leader of Reform UK (Image: GETTY)
Richard Tice, , has offered a damning verdict on Britain’s ‘bloated” civil service after a new report suggesting costs surged by almost £2billion last year.
And the said the Institute for Government’s annual Whitehall Monitor demonstrated that the organisation he dubs “the Blob” is “less efficient than ever before”.
The annual survey, published in full tomorrow, reveals that the lowest rank of the civil service, administrative officers and assistants, has shrunk by 45% since 2010, partly as a result of routine clerical work being automated.
In contrast, every other rank has grown, with the biggest increase being the number of grade 6 and 7 officials, just below the Senior Civil Service, according to a preview shared with .
Their ranks have swelled by 121% to 77,900 over the course of 2023-24, they now make up a seventh of the civil service, double the proportion 15 years ago.
The number of senior civil servants has risen by 47% to 7,295 staff, meaning one in 67 of Britain’s 510,00 civil servants is now in the top ranks, up from one in 100 in 2010.
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Whitehall, as well as an area of London, refers to the British civil service and government (Image: Getty)
More than one in 10 civil servants (12.7%) either moved between departments or left the civil service entirely – the second highest level of churn in the civil service since at least 2010/11.
Turnover was highest in 2023/24 in DHSC (24%) and at the centre of government, in the Treasury (21.8%) and the Cabinet Office (20.5%).
Women’s representation in the Senior Civil Service reached 48.2% in 2024, just shy of the population benchmark of 48.8%. But the senior civil service lags behind on ethnic diversity and disabled representation.
Overall, the Civil Service has increased in size by a third since 2016 and the number is now 123,000 higher than in the year of the referendum.
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Civil service pay has fallen in real terms, with senior civil servants now paid 24% less than in 2010.
However, the total wage bill remains unchanged in real terms at about £19 billion because staff are paid more rapidly.
Had the grade structure stayed the same as in 2010, costs would have been £1.9 billion lower. Hence a more top-heavy civil service is now in effect costing an extra £1.9bn in wages annually.
Mr Tice told Express.co.uk: ““The Civil Service is more bloated, dysfunctional, and less efficient than ever before.
“As usual, Labour’s approach is to throw hard-earned taxpayer money at problems, hoping it will magically be resolved.”
He added: “Reform UK will cut waste and ensure that only the most qualified individuals hold senior positions in our Civil Service.
“We are committed to restructuring and streamlining the Civil Service like never before, creating an institution that runs efficiently and serves the best interests of the British public. This vision embodies everything Reform UK stands for.”
The report warns Prime Minister Sir to get a grip on “unplanned and uncontrolled grade inflation”.
Jack Worlidge, IfG senior researcher and lead report author, said there was clear evidence of “grade inflation”.
He continued: “That’s backed up by anecdotal evidence from just talking to people in the civil service,” he said.
“Alongside the uncontrolled and unplanned expansion of the Civil Service there’s been equally unplanned and uncontrolled grade inflation.”
This “creates different expectations in different departments, where a certain grade in one is informally equivalent to a totally different grade in another department.”
He added: “It disrupts the uniformity of grades across the Civil Service.”