Cutting civil service by 20% over five years ‘more than achievable’, MSPs told

Finance Secretary Shona Robison has insisted the government will not be “randomly taking an axe to services” as it seeks to cut civil service numbers.

She agreed that reducing the number of civil servants working for the Scottish Government by 20% over the next five years was “reasonable”.

It comes as ministers seek to reduce the overall size of the public sector workforce by 0.5% each year for the rest of the decade.

That is being done to try to deal with a looming fiscal black hole, with the government having warned that taking no action could see this amount to almost £5 billion by 2030.

MSPs on Holyrood’s Finance Committee were told a 20% reduction in administration costs over that five-year period is something Permanent Secretary Joe Griffin – who is Scotland’s most senior civil servant – is “much focused on”.

Committee convener Kenneth Gibson asked if that would see the workforce reduce by 20% over five years, with the Finance Secretary responding: “Yeah.”

Asked if this was reasonable, Ms Robison again said: “Yeah.”

She added that the reduction “is significant” but “in the bigger scale it is more than achievable”.

However, she stressed to the committee: “It has to be done in the right way, it isn’t about just randomly taking an axe to services, it is about doing it in a way that is in the main through natural attrition, voluntary severance.”

Mr Gibson said that if the Scottish Government was seeking to improve efficiency “the civil service does seem relatively top heavy compared to other organisations”, adding that it “looks like it is all chiefs and no braves, if you know what I mean”.

Ms Robison however said there had been changes made to senior posts in “director general territory” within the civil service.

“There has been a reduction in the number there in order to lead by example,” the Finance Secretary said.