The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs’ (Defra) workforce has been reduced by 10%, with 750 positions cut, according to reports.
According to The Telegraph, the job cuts are set to reduce salaries in the department by over £30m a year.
The decision to cut the workforce is part of the UK Government’s money-saving measures aimed at reducing operating costs within the next five years.
As part of the UK Government’s 2025 Spending Review, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced an average 2.7% cut to Defra’s day-to-day budget per year.
This equates to a fall in resource spending from £4.8 billion in 2025–26 to £4.7 billion by 2028–29, with only the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Department for Transport seeing deeper operational budget reductions.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced plans in March to cut over £2bn in office costs over the next five years.
According to reports, the plans would collectively reduce departmental operational costs by 15%, which could equate to up to 10,000 job cuts.
Civil Service unions warned the job cuts would face ‘a lot of opposition’ and impact the public.
As of March 2025, there were 516,455 full-time equivalent (FTE) civil servants, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.
Defra has over 13,950 staff on its payroll, making it the eighth-largest department in the UK Government. Employment numbers increased in the years after the Brexit referendum in 2016.