Prime Minister Keir Starmer (Image: Getty)
The Prime Minister will today pledge to transform Whitehall with a “digital revolution” giving taxpayers “£45bn worth of savings and productivity benefits” in public services. Civil servants will face the axe under a new policy that states no person should do a job that technology or AI can do instead.
Downing Street has denied it is taking a “chainsaw” to Whitehall but Sir will warn the state is failing to deliver despite becoming bloated as civil servant numbers soar. It comes in advance of the Chancellor’s statement on March 26 setting out the state of the public finances.
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New employment policies will make it easier to encourage failing officials to quit their jobs while the highest-paid will be put on a Personal Development Plan if they fail to deliver, with a view to dismissing them if they do not improve in six months.
A new apprenticeship scheme called TechTrack will bring 2,000 apprentices into public sector departments by 2030.
Sir Keir will say today: “The fundamental task of politics right now is to take the decisions needed on national security, to deliver security for people at home.”
“The need for greater urgency now could not be any clearer. We must move further and faster on security and renewal.
“Every pound spent, every regulation, every decision must deliver for working people.
“If we push forward with the digitisation of government services. There are up to £45bn worth of savings and productivity benefits, ready to be realised.”
It comes after appointed his ally to oversee a massive cut in the cost of Government in the US.
The UK now employs 515,000 civil servants, up from 385,000 in 2016.