PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
Reduction in civil service employment (15 May 2022)

That this House condemns Government plans to cut 91,000 jobs from the civil service over the next three years; notes that departmental spending levels for the next three years have only recently been issued, following a process of assessing future staffing requirements; is angered to have learnt of these plans from tabloid newspapers rather than a statement to Members of Parliament, and considers this rushed announcement as a desperate attempt to deflect from their own failure to address the cost of living crisis; regards as spurious the claim that this would represent a return to 2016 levels, since at that time there were already serious issues of understaffing in Departments such as the Home Office and that, since then, withdrawal from the EU has increased the volume of work required; further notes that the lengthy backlogs currently experienced in HM Passport Office have resulted from a failure to plan, recruit and resource operations sufficiently to meet the upsurge in demand; believes the further loss of jobs in that department and others will only compound the present crisis; and therefore calls on the Government to withdraw these ill-considered proposals.

Sponsored by:
Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party)