Write to letters@thetimes.co.ukSir, There have been successful drives to reduce the size of the civil service: Francis Maude’s was one, as Alice Thomson writes (“Bloated civil service is ripe for Reeves’s axe”, Mar 26). Indeed, between 1980 and 1996 the size dropped from roughly three quarters of a million people to half a million under prime ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major. The secret lies not in aggressive public statements — they put people’s backs up and create resistance — but in quiet good management by permanent secretaries and senior officials sustained over a period of years, drawing on experience. One thing is, however, essential. The drive needs clear ministerial support in private, and above all political will from

Source: The Times March 27, 2025 09:43 UTC