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| Britain |
| 100,000 U.K. civil servants & officials are to face the axe |
| 2004-07-12 |
| More than 100,000 civil servants and officials are to face the axe to release funds for frontline public services, Chancellor Gordon Brown has announced. Unveiling his three-year spending review for Government departments, Mr Brown promised above inflation increases for defence and security. He told MPs that 84,150 civil service jobs would go, with a further 20,000 posts to be cut from the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales, and from the Northern Ireland Office. Defence spending is set to rise from £29.7 billion to £33.4 billion by 2008 - a real terms increase of 1.4%. Mr Brown said that it represented the biggest sustained increase in defence spending for more two decades. In addition spending on homeland security is set to double from £1 billion to £2.1 billion over the period of the review. Commenting on his defence spending proposals, the Chancellor told MPs: "Taken together, these rises provide for a faster rate of real terms growth in this spending round than the last and ensures the longest sustained real terms increase in defence spending for 20 years." On security, the Chancellor said: "Before September 11th, spending on security at home was £950 million a year. "Having agreed a set of reforms that modernise our border security, our counter terrorism capabilities, our radio communication systems, our arrangements in respect of nuclear and chemical decontamination, and added 1,000 staff to our intelligence services, overall security spending will rise from £950 million in 2001 and £1.5 billion this year to reach, by 2007-08, £2.1 billion - a 10% annual average real terms rise." The Chancellor's plans to cull thousands of jobs from Whitehall are set to prove the most controversial aspect of his spending review. Speaking in the Commons, Mr Brown said: "I want to put on record my appreciation of the work of our civil service and their commitment to the ethic of public service. "But it is precisely because the public sector has invested £6 billions in new technology, modernising our ability to provide back office and transactional services, that I can announce, with the detailed plans Departments are publishing for the years to 2008, a gross reduction in civil service posts of 84,150 - to release resources from administration to invest in the front line." |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |
| #1 It's a good start. Whouda thunkit, from a Labour administration?! Defence spending is set to rise from £29.7 billion to £33.4 billion by 2008 If they spent the money wisely - even better. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2004-07-13 6:11:30 AM |