Department for Science, Innovation and Technology: Abolition Debate
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Baroness Finn
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Department for Science, Innovation and Technology: Abolition
Baroness Finn Excerpts(2 weeks, 1 day ago)
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Baroness Finn (Con)
My Lords, between 2010 and 2016, under the coalition and Conservative Governments, the Civil Service headcount fell by 21%. We simultaneously set up the award-winning Government Digital Service in 2011. Despite this Government’s repeated pledges to reduce headcount, the numbers have risen by 2% since they took office in 2024. Can the Minister say whether Ministers at any point approved that increase?
Baroness Twycross (Lab)
The noble Baroness would have to ask the previous Conservative Government, which saw an increase from 2016 of 140,000 civil servants. We can have a discussion about numbers, but while that might be true of the coalition Government, it definitely was not true of the Conservative Government that followed.