Boris Johnson plans ‘revolutionary’ Whitehall overhaul
Boris Johnson is planning a radical overhaul of Whitehall, with plans to abolish departments, sack a third of the cabinet and reform how civil servants are hired.
Work has begun by Number 10 on abolishing or merging several departments, including scrapping the Department for Exiting the European Union.
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The department’s best civil servants will instead be sent to work with chief Brexit negotiator David Frost, according to The Sunday Times.
Plans are reportedly being drawn up to merge the Department for International Trade and the business department, while the Department for International Development will be absorbed by the foreign office.
Climate change and energy will be taken out of the business department and become a separate portfolio and immigration will be taken out of the home office to become its own department as well.
Johnson is expected to make a minor reshuffle next week, before making wholesale changes in February, which could include one-in-three cabinet members moved on.
The changes are also reported to include reform of how civil servants are recruited.
They would make it easier for high-ranking positions to be filled by external experts, instead of lifelong civil servant mandarins.
A senior government figure told The Sunday Times: “It will be pretty big. It will be finding the people who can do the jobs and not worry about media and short-term things.
“We’re drawing up a very detailed and very revolutionary plan and then we are going to implement it.”
The Prime Minister is also putting together his agenda for the Queen’s Speech, which will largely revolve around investment into the NHS and the north of the country.
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The Conservatives are looking to shore up the northern and midlands vote it was able to attract on the way to Thursday’s electoral landslide.
The Queen’s Speech is set to include a promise to pump £34bn into the NHS by 2023-24 and to spend £78bn on transport in the north of England.