More than 100 civil servants face potential job cuts from the organisation responsible for security vetting as the Government pushes ahead with plans to reduce the size of the Civil Service. The Cabinet Office has proposed slashing staff numbers at UK Security Vetting (UKSV) from just under 900 to 780 full-time roles.
Additional cuts have been proposed for teams supporting the Government's emergency Cobra committee, including staff working on chemical, biological and radiological threats. The PCS union has warned that these reductions would "compromise key Government functions, including those critical to national security and emergency preparedness".
Wider Civil Service cuts planned
The proposed reductions form part of broader plans to cut 2,100 civil servants from the Cabinet Office as the Government seeks to reduce overall government costs by 15 per cent. Most cuts are expected through voluntary redundancy or by not replacing departing staff, with other civil servants redeployed elsewhere.
Sources familiar with the proposals told PA that around 110 jobs could be cut from UKSV, which conducts security checks for sensitive roles in the Ministry of Defence and Foreign Office. The organisation also carries out security checks on staff applying for parliamentary passes.
Security vetting under scrutiny
UKSV faced heavy criticism from the National Audit Office in 2023 over delays in conducting checks that risked hampering national security work. The organisation's chief executive Trish Deghorn wrote last year that UKSV had turned itself around since then, partly due to increased staffing levels.
Cabinet Office sources argued that back-office staff working on UKSV's recovery were no longer required and the organisation's headcount could now be reduced. Around 30 jobs are also proposed to be cut from teams supporting Cobra following a merger of Cabinet Office directorates working on crisis response and resilience.
Union opposition grows
The cuts include three of the 10 staff working on chemical, biological and radiological threats, though the team will continue to operate. Fran Heathcote, general secretary of the PCS union, said the cuts would "undermine the delivery of essential public services and compromise key government functions".
"PCS will continue to stand firmly with our members in opposing these damaging cuts," Heathcote added. "We will defend their job security and the vital work they do to keep the country running safely and effectively."
Political criticism emerges
Alex Burghart, the Conservative shadow chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, criticised the Government's priorities. "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," he said.
A UK Government spokesperson declined to comment specifically on national security staffing but said the department was becoming "more strategic, specialist and smaller". The process remains ongoing and no final decisions on job cuts have been made.
(PA) Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
