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Senior managers at the Foreign Office in London are facing a major cull as part of an efficiency drive that officials say could see the department’s overall headcount fall by about one-fifth.
Sir Olly Robbins, the department’s most senior civil servant, has told staff to expect a “significant” cut in staff numbers as he seeks to focus resources on the overseas network, several officials told the Financial Times.
Robbins, Britain’s former chief Brexit negotiator, has decided to cut back a whole tier of management, reducing the number of directors from about 50 to just 30.
Meanwhile, some director-generals have been told to reapply for their own jobs, or revised versions of their jobs, as their numbers are reduced from nine to seven.
Officials at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said that Robbins told an all-staff meeting that there would be “significant” reductions in headcount, as he seeks efficiency savings across the board.
One person said the expectation was that this could be in the range of 15-25 per cent, with the bigger cuts coming at senior levels. The FCDO currently employs 17,000 staff in 281 offices around the world, including at its ornate Victorian headquarters in King Charles Street.
Some supporters of the plan said the reduction in the number of FCDO directors was long overdue, arguing their numbers had ballooned in recent years and that the department had failed to make efficiency savings when the Foreign Office was merged with the Department for International Development in 2020.
The FCDO, like other government departments, is having to make cuts and efficiency savings as part of a cross-Whitehall spending review. Robbins, appointed to the role in January, is conducting a thorough overhaul of the way the civil service operates.
The government will set out its plans for spending at the Spending Review, which will conclude on June 11.
“Olly thinks there are too many directors and director-generals in London, but this is part of a wider review,” said one FCDO official. “The overseas network isn’t excluded, but we are looking at our strategic priorities.”
Lord Peter Ricketts, permanent under-secretary at the Foreign Office from 2006-2010, told the Financial Times: “I agree with Olly Robbins on this. The FCDO needs more of its best people out on the ground in this unpredictable world, and a slimmer head office.
“That means cutting out process and unnecessary briefing wherever possible and pushing responsibility down to lower levels. More foreign, less office.
“But this should not be driven by budget cuts. It makes no sense to spend hugely more on defence and pare back the FCDO. As the generals will tell you, the military need the diplomats to prevent conflict and to achieve political effects with military power.”
Sir Simon Fraser, another former permanent under-secretary at King Charles Street, said: “Facing further real-terms budget cuts, on top of previous aid cuts, it makes sense for FCDO to slim down senior management in London to maximise resources in embassies abroad.”
The FCDO said: “‘In a dangerous world, the foreign secretary has been clear that we must reform the FCDO to ensure that Britain’s diplomatic and development footprint is more open, more strategic and more technologically enabled, to deliver maximum security and growth for the British people.”
