Decc: 10% of staff could go

Up to 10 per cent of the workforce at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) will come under threat during 2013/14, with around 200 staff expected to enter into consultation over their jobs, according to information obtained by Utility Week.

Most of the posts under threat are expected to be in the main body of Decc staff, while the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is expected to be less affected, according to sources.

The NDA accounts for most of Decc’s spending (roughly 65 per cent), and most of this is tied up in long-term contracts.

According to the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS), any cuts to the 2,835 staff at the department would threaten the ability of Decc to “fulfil its statutory duties”. Decc has already been told it needs to slash its budget by 10 per cent (£400 million) in 2015 as part of the coalition’s attempts to tackle the UK deficit.

“There is a lot of scope for problems and issues, and the cut comes on top of a significant reduction,” said Jack Papasavva, negotiations officer at the PCS. He said the workload of the remaining staff would increase, with an immediate need to prioritise work and identify what programmes could be halted. Papasavva added that there could also be a “potentially significant impact” on the work the NDA does.

The PCS said that while there may be some scope to renegotiate staff terms and conditions, and to reduce costs by introducing new technology, there was limited potential to make significant reductions in costs without losing staff.

Decc said it would not comment on the cuts until the details of the spending review were set out in full by the Treasury on 26 June.