At Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ behest, the UK government is undertaking an ambitious UKCAT-analogous effort. They want to reduce civil service operating costs by 15 percent before the end of their current parliamentary term. This initiative alone calls for the elimination of at least 10,000 jobs. It will most significantly depend on the technological leaps in technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to make things more efficient.
Reeves boldly claims this drastic measure is “most certainly” achievable. In addition, he calls attention to AI’s capacity to automate the repetitive work currently done by administrative assistants. According to government estimates, about 62 percent of these jobs are considered routine work and therefore, prone to automating. If done properly, this would free civil servants to focus their efforts on deeper, more-often innovative work. It also presents policymakers an opportunity to positively reshape the workforce structure.
Giles Wilkes, a senior fellow at the Institute for Government, expects AI to assume certain jobs within the civil service. He’s equally optimistic about the new job opportunities this technological shift could create. As he wrote, historical precedents illustrate that technological breakthroughs produce “tsunami after tsunami of technological upheaval.” What’s worse, these changes frequently happen without any corresponding cuts in administrative spending.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) strongly supports this initiative with some great data. When fully implemented, they even calculate that digitalization across the public sector could save us at least £45 billion per year in productivity. The department thus far has declined to publicly release the full model it used to calculate this figure, despite repeated requests from POLITICO. They do intend to open-source the model’s code at a later date.
Recent data shows that civil service executive officers are stuck doing the routine work 48 percent of the time. Senior executive officers spend 43 percent of their time on these tasks, and higher executive officers only 23 percent. Surprisingly, the most senior civil servants are not even involved in the day-to-day management. These data suggest that it will be lower-tier civil servants that are the primary targets of automation. In reality, close to two thirds of their day is eaten up by things technology can make much more efficient.
These assumptions have been vigorously challenged by industry, state and local government stakeholders. MP Chi Onwurah expressed skepticism about “questionable assumptions and extrapolations” that support the government’s rationale for job cuts.
Gavin Freeguard, another critic of the methodology, stated, “It’s even more disappointing that it’s taken select committee inquiries and FOI requests to get any information about the methodology behind the number.” He critiqued the government’s practice as “savings numberwang” and called for openness and accountability over long-term financial planning.
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