AI should replace the work of government officials where it can be done to the same standard, under new rules that have prompted unions to warn Keir Starmer to stop blaming problems on civil servants.
As part of his plans for reshaping the state, the prime minister will on Thursday outline how a digital revolution will bring billions of pounds in savings to the government.
Officials will be told to abide by a mantra that says: “No person’s substantive time should be spent on a task where digital or AI can do it better, quicker and to the same high quality and standard.”
In his speech, Starmer will claim that more than £45bn can be saved by greater use of digital methods in Whitehall, even before AI is deployed, with 2,000 new tech apprentices to be recruited to the civil service.
However, with bruising cuts on the way at this spring’s spending review, Dave Penman, the general secretary of the FDA union for senior civil servants, said: “Mantras that look like they’ve been written by ChatGPT are fine for setting out a mission, but spending rounds are about reality.”
He said civil servants will welcome the commitment of more support with digital transformation, but the government “needs to set out, in detail, how more can be delivered with less”.
Starmer’s rhetoric about reshaping the state has alarmed some trade unions who fear for civil service jobs and are also concerned about morale among officials, after years of being demonised as unproductive by the Tories.
Penman said it was “right that the prime minister sets out an ambitious agenda for transforming public services with digital and AI tools, but … many civil servants will be looking for the substance and feeling that, once again, the prime minister is using the language of blame rather than transformation”.
Mike Clancy, the general secretary of Prospect union, said: “Civil servants are not hostile to reforms, but these must be undertaken in partnership with staff and unions. I urge everyone in government to avoid the incendiary rhetoric and tactics we are seeing in the United States, and to be clear that reforms are about enhancing not undermining the civil service.”
Clancy said it was right to make better use of tech in the public security but added that the government will find it challenging to compete for the skills needed to deliver on this agenda under the current pay regime, which is why Prospect is campaigning for more pay flexibility to recruit and retain specialists in the civil service in areas like science and data.
“Government should also be doing more to utilise the talented specialists it already has at its disposal, many of whom are working in regulators and other agencies that have been starved of funding in recent years.”
In Starmer’s speech, he will also pledge to reduce regulation and cut some quangos, taking on the “cottage industry of checkers and blockers slowing down delivery for working people”. The government will have a new target of reducing the cost of regulation by 25%.
Starmer will give a diagnosis of the problem in the UK that the state has become “bigger, but weaker” and is not delivering on its core purpose.
“The need for greater urgency now could not be any clearer. We must move further and faster on security and renewal,” he will say. “Every pound spent, every regulation, every decision must deliver for working people …
“If we push forward with the digitisation of government services. There are up to £45bn worth of savings and productivity benefits, ready to be realised.”
In the US, Donald Trump has embarked on a radical programme of sacking government workers under the new department of government efficiency (Doge), advised by the billionaire businessman Elon Musk.
Starmer’s government is understood to want also to scale back the size of the state, reducing the number of civil servants by substantially more than 10,000. Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office minister, on Sunday said the government is prepared to bring in tougher performance management requirements in a bid to shed underperforming officials, and put more emphasis on performance-related pay.
The Guardian revealed on Tuesday that No 10 and the Treasury are taking a close interest in proposals drawn up by Labour Together, a thinktank with close links to the government, to reshape the state under plans dubbed “project chainsaw”.
The project’s nickname is a reference to Elon Musk’s stunt wielding a chainsaw to symbolise controversial government cuts for Donald Trump’s administration.
Starmer’s press spokesperson said on Wednesday that No 10 rejects the “juvenile characterisation” of their reshaping plans as slashing the state.
“There’s no approach here where we’re taking a chainsaw to the system,” she said.
