Whitehall departments have been told they must draw up plans to cut 40% of staff.
Compulsory redundancies are being mooted under plans to reduce the number of officials by 91,000 over three years, which would be a return to pre-Brexit levels.
An official report sent to Whitehall departments instructs them to draw up plans for three scenarios: cuts of 20%, 30% and 40% by March 2025.
It states: “Recognising the challenge of reducing civil service numbers to 2016 levels by 31 March 2025, departments should also include an initial assessment of the extent to which it might be necessary to use voluntary exit schemes or redundancies (voluntary and compulsory) so this can be considered as part of wider planning.”
It asks for officials to flag if there would be significant impacts on important government policies, such as levelling up.
