HMRC answering 100,000 calls per day and the DVLA opening 45,000 envelopes every 24 hours should be things of the past.
Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle has confirmed that the UK Government’s public sector automation drive will spell a reduction to staffing numbers.
It is ‘almost certain’ that the existing workforce will be cut in a bid to realise an estimated £45billion in productivity and efficiency savings offered by AI. ‘More than half or about half of all transactions are carried out by government or analogue,’ he told Sky News.
Kyle was equally opaque when it came to the type of jobs that could go, and the extent of the cuts. Citing the DVLA’s mountain of 45,000 physical items of mail received daily, and the 100,000 calls HMRC answers in person each day, he suggested this was ‘not the way we should be running a country in the 2020s.
‘It is almost certain that the headcount will go down. But it is not going to be an arbitrary overall figure,’ said Kyle. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to make further announcements about major reforms to how the state functions before the end of this week.
Many are welcoming the idea of a more effective civil service, with staff hours freed up by the arrival of new technologies. However, the shadow of 47th US President Donald Trump and ‘first buddy’ Elon Musk’s outright assault on the public sector hangs heavy in the air.
Through the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, deep cuts have been made across countless departments and White House-Washington-aligned organisations. Last week, Bloomberg reported that as many as 500,000 public sector jobs could go by the end of the year in the drive to slim down the state.
Critics argue decisions are being driven by a plan to privatise many areas of government. Musk himself has picked up numerous contracts since the process began.
A number of legal challenges have also been successful in blocking redundancies, and in some cases staff have then been invited back to work after the essential nature of their position became clear – as was the case for a team tasked with safeguarding parts of the US nuclear weapons stockpile.
Image: Possessed Photography / Unsplash
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