Headcount Reductions in Home Office

Date: 25 March 2024 Ref: HO/MB/005/24

Headcount Reductions in Home Office

Members will have now received the message from the Department and their relevant Director

Generals about headcount reductions across the Department.

This is because of the Chancellor’s announcement towards the end of last year that he wanted to

see the Civil Service return to pre-pandemic levels. This ludicrous aim, driven by populist rhetoric

rather than a detailed analysis of what staffing is required, hasn’t yet been defined with specific

figures attached.

However, the first step of this process is to freeze numbers until March 2025. Again, there has been

some questions about when the point of freezing departmental numbers was and therefore what

that number is that we will be aiming for in 2025. However, PCS believe that it will require a

reduction in department staffing numbers by around 4,000. This number will not be applied equally

across the department with different requirements depending on area.

That will inevitably mean restrictions on external recruitment, and potentially some form of

redeployment to cover priority roles. Whilst PCS welcomes the initial indication that the reductions

can be managed without resorting to redundancies, this isn’t the full story. PCS does not accept

that the Home Office needs to undergo staff reductions. Our members already feeling under

pressure to deliver with limited resources will potentially feel even more pressure as overall

department targets are inevitably maintained despite fewer of us around to deliver them.

These are only the initial stages of these plans and PCS will be engaging at every level with

management and members to ensure that members are protected.

James Cox Pete Wright Mike Jones

Group President Group Vice President Group Secretary