More than 100 civil servants set to be cut from security vetting and Cobra teams

South Wales Guardian

3 days ago

The Cabinet Office has proposed reducing the staff at UK Security Vetting (UKSV) to 780 full-time roles, down from its current level of just under 900, the PA news agency understands.
Further cuts have also been proposed for the teams supporting the Government's emergency Cobra committee, including the number of staff working on chemical, biological and radiological threats.
PCS union chief Fran Heathcote warned that the cuts would 'compromise key Government functions, including those critical to national security and emergency preparedness'.
The process is understood to be still ongoing and no final decisions on job cuts have been made.
The proposed cuts are part of wider plans to reduce the number of civil servants working for the Cabinet Office by 2,100 as part of efforts to cut the overall cost of government by 15%.
Most of the cuts are expected to come through voluntary redundancy or by not replacing people who leave, while other civil servants will be redeployed elsewhere.
A source familiar with the proposals told PA that the Cabinet Office had proposed cutting around 110 jobs from UKSV, which vets people for sensitive roles including in the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign Office, as well as conducting security checks on staff applying for parliamentary passes.
UKSV was heavily criticised by the National Audit Office in 2023 over delays carrying out checks that, the watchdog said, risked hampering work on national security.
Writing in Civil Service World last year, UKSV's chief executive Trish Deghorn said the organisation had managed to turn itself around since then, in part due to increased staffing levels.
A source told PA that the Cabinet Office had argued that back-office staff working on UKSV's recovery were no longer required and the organisation's headcount could now be cut.
The source also told PA that around 30 jobs were proposed to be cut from the teams supporting Cobra after a merger of Cabinet Office directorates working on crisis response and resilience.
These include cutting three of the 10 staff working on chemical, biological and radiological threats, although the team will continue to exist.
Fran Heathcote, general secretary of the PCS union, said: 'We warned from the outset that plans for job cuts at the Cabinet Office failed to distinguish between back-office and frontline roles.
'It is now evident that these cuts will undermine the delivery of essential public services and compromise key government functions, including those critical to national security and emergency preparedness.
'PCS will continue to stand firmly with our members in opposing these damaging cuts. We will defend their job security and the vital work they do to keep the country running safely and effectively.'
Alex Burghart, the Conservative shadow chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, said: 'While Labour let the welfare state balloon to £100 billion per year, handing out billion-pound bungs to their union paymasters whilst funnelling money into diversity jobs, it beggars belief they are cutting back on our national security and emergency infrastructure.
'As always for Labour, it's party first, country second.'
A UK Government spokesperson said: 'We don't routinely comment on national security staffing.
'More broadly, we are making the department more strategic, specialist and smaller, helping existing teams better serve the public and deliver the plan for change.'