"I'm confident we can reduce civil servant numbers by 10,000," she told Sky News in a Sunday interview. "During Covid there were big increases in the number of people working in the civil service; that was the right thing to do to respond to those challenges, but it's not right that we just keep those numbers there forever. "When asked for examples where technology could be used to help reduce the size of the civil service that had numbered over 540,000 last year, Reeves listed briefing roles and said the UK's tax collecting office was already using AI to reduce fraud. The headroom that allows the chancellor to meet her own fiscal rules has been wiped out since her October 30 budget, due to weak growth and high borrowing costs. She is likely to cut plans for government spending and welfare so as to rebuild the headroom, having promised to avoid further tax rises.

Source: The Times March 23, 2025 20:01 UTC