I see 6 billion quid off savings are required to drover the increase to 2.5% GDP in this Parliament. The following efficiencies need to be delivered. So says every government that doesnt have the cash to pay for their promises.
The obvious contradiction in these is obvious.
Ā£6 Billion Civilian Workforce Efficiency Savings
The Review outlines a goal to unlock nearly Ā£6 billion in savings over this Parliament via:
Efficiency and productivity savings
Changes to the civilian workforce
Structural simplification.
The civilian workforce changes include:
Reducing MOD Civil Service costs by at least 10% by 2030.
Accelerating adoption of AI, automation, and augmentation technologies to allow ~5,000 military personnel and civil servants in HR, finance, and commercial functions to move into front-line roles, reducing admin costs.
Baseline reviews of all Head Office and Staff HQ roles to reallocate military personnel from desk-based to operational functions.
Use of Service Leavers (ex-military staff) as Reserves or civil servants where tech solutions arenāt viable.
Focus on productivity rather than simple headcount reduction.
Thereās also an overarching government-wide requirement: all departments must reduce administrative budgets by 15% by the end of the decade.
We have 41 Admirals and 62 Commissioned ships (Yes I know some of them are boats!) in the Royal Navy (and another 11 in RFA)
Seems there could be a bit of a saving there?
You would think so, but strangely enough the military always seem to keep a bucket load of top jobs, for career purposes of course. We have Admirals, Generals and Air Marshals running swathes of the MOD procurement arms, because a military career makes you an excellent procurement manager, allegedly.
If itās any consolation being a high-flying scientist is thought to make you a good personnel and/or programme manager too.
The flip side is would you want the big decisions made by someone who doesnāt have real expertise/insight into the organisationās core ābusinessā ?
They are already made by those in London who set the requirement and get the money from the Treasury, heavily loaded with military. The procurement bit doesnāt need senior military and would benefit from them not being involved.
Ā£6 Billion Civilian Workforce Efficiency Savings