Ministry of Defence permanent secretary David Williams has today announced a recruitment freeze at the department.
In an internal memo to staff, seen by CSW, Williams said the department has a responsibility to balance its budget, “no matter what the circumstances” and that the leadership team has therefore “made the difficult decision to introduce civil service recruitment controls to help support this”.
Williams, who is departing later this year, acknowledged that the recruitment controls would be “unwelcome news”, but added: “We have a responsibility to reduce the headcount gradually by better managing recruitment. We must prioritise our work so that our ambition properly reflects our capacity and move resource to where it is needed most.”
The MoD perm sec said the controls will start with a one-month pause of all new and ongoing recruitment from today, which will last until Monday, 3 November. However, he confirmed that any recruitment campaigns that have reached provisional offer stage will not be affected.
Williams said the department will use the recruitment pause to “design more refined controls" which will be agreed by the executive committee. He said this will involve “working closely with leadership teams across the organisation and our trade unions, to make sure that they are sustainable and aligned to the Strategic Defence Review ambition to reduce the cost of the civil service by at least 10% by 2030”.
It comes after the Strategic Defence Review, published in June, targeted a “minimum” of 10% savings from the civil service.
Responding to the news, Prospect, the union for civil service specialists, warned the freeze would only worsen skills and staffing shortages at the department.
Steve Thomas, Prospect’s deputy general secretary, said: “The government is rightly promoting investment in our defence industry, but that industry is only as strong as the ministry that supports it.
“The reality is that the MoD is already facing staffing and skills shortages, exacerbated by a significant and growing pay gap with the private sector.
“This recruitment freeze will only add to these concerns, piling huge pressure on talented but overworked specialist MoD staff whose services the government needs to retain.”
He added: “Government must urgently engage with Prospect and other unions about how we work towards a situation where MoD employment policies support the wider defence mission, rather than undermine it.”