Staff at the Department for Transport (DfT) have accused the ministry of cutting its budget 'too deep and too fast', a recent inquiry into Whitehall cuts has revealed.
Released on 7 November, the report by the Institute for Government think-tank analysed how 17 departments dealt with the Government's austerity measure of cutting 50,000 civil service staff in 18 months.
The move risked creating 'a demoralised civil service, inadequate services and a dissatisfied public' the report concluded, after little more than one in four civil servants said they felt their department had handled the cuts well.
The DfT was part of a group of core Whitehall departments – including the DCLG –which have reduced staff levels furthest and fastest and are now around 20% to 30% smaller since the 2010 Spending Review. The DfT has shrunk by around 22%.
Using the transport department as a case study, the report states: 'Communication and engagement was sustained at a high level throughout the change programme.
'The speed of change necessitated some difficult trade-offs, however. To some in the department, the change seemed to be too deep, too fast.'
The report places the department's failure on the West Coast Mainline bid back into the spotlight, after it was forced into an embarrassing U-turn on its initial decision over the contract.
The DfT's staff cuts were highlighted by non-executive director, Sam Laidlaw, in an initial report last week on the mistakes which led to the halting of the West Coast tender process.
Cabinet Office officials rejected criticism that that the cuts had been made in a disorganised fashion, pointing to the work of the efficiency and reform group which, they claimed, was on track to deliver £20bn of savings across government by 2015.
Transforming Whitehall- a report by the Institute for Government.
