Whitehall blasted for spending millions 'talking to itself' on 'woke workshops'

Whitehall is spending millions of pounds "talking to itself" with staff running a growing list of "woke" awareness workshops, a former civil servant has exposed. New Freedom of Information data has revealed that, across the Government, potentially hundreds of staff work in plum internal communications jobs, with the Treasury alone employing at least 30 of them at a cost of more than £2.7million a year.

Former civil servant Arthur Reynolds said: "Whitehall is spending millions of pounds of taxpayers' cash talking to itself." He claimed that 260 people had the "sole purpose is sending emails, updating intranets, and posting staff notices."

The Cabinet Office suggested that those claims were unsubstantiated, but repeated the figure in a data release, and could not confirm the current staffing numbers. Mr Reynolds said work "most organisations would handle with a small team has become a Whitehall industry", with intranets featuring a "drumbeat of awareness weeks, staff networks, and workshops".

He said these include "allyship for beginners", "interactive dignity at work sessions", and "celebrations for ever more niche events". Mr Reynolds said: "It would be amusing if it weren't so costly."

He warned that posts about the Prime Minister "quickly descend into comment threads where internal groups air grievances or pursue political arguments".

Mr Reynolds said: "Every pound spent on internal messaging is a pound taken away from the frontline.

Every hour spent looking for an email address is time that could have been spent improving services for taxpayers."

He added: "The Government says it wants to focus on delivery. It should start by dragging Whitehall into the 21st century."

Matt Vickers MP, deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, savaged the spending.

He said: "Millions of taxpayers' money spent for workshops on allyship for civil servants who are supposed to be delivering public services.

This is exactly the kind of waste that has become institutionalised across Whitehall as the actual budgets for frontline services are squeezed."

Mr Vickers added: "Labour's bloated internal communications industry grows and the bill lands w shops on allyship for civil servants who are supposed to be delivering the taxpayer. The Conservatives will cut the size of the civil service and redirect money away from ideological box-ticking towards the services the public need."

William Yarwood, campaigns director at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "Taxpayers will be furious that millions are being spent on Whitehall talking to itself while public services crumble."

He added: "This kind of bureaucratic self-indulgence is exactly why trust in Government is so low. Civil servants should be focused on doing their jobs, not sitting in endless woke workshops funded by the public."

By Arthur Reynolds

Whitehall is spending millions of pounds of taxpayers' cash talking to itself.

New FOI data shows that across central Government, nearly 260 staff work in internal communications.

That's 260 people whose sole purpose is sending emails, updating intranets, and posting staff notices. The Treasury alone employs at least 30 of them, at a cost of more than £2.7 million a year.

Work most organisations would handle with a small team has become a Whitehall industry. Scroll through these intranets and you'll find a drumbeat of awareness weeks, staff networks, and workshops: "allyship for beginners", "interactive dignity at work sessions", and celebrations for ever more niche events.

It would be amusing if it weren't so costly.

More revealing still is what happens when internal communications teams share the latest announcements from No 10. Posts about the Prime Minister quickly descend into comment threads where internal groups air grievances or pursue political arguments.

If this is the output, why are we paying so many people to produce it?

It's because each department runs its own sprawling intranet. Announcements are drafted, cleared, and posted in parallel systems that don't speak to each other.

The result is a workforce that still relies on informal networks to understand what is actually going on.

When they need to reach another department, officials use existing contacts or go through ministers' private offices. This creates a system that is slow, opaque, and all too easy to game if someone wants to stall a proposal.

A single, cross-government platform would do the job better and cheaper. Adding a searchable directory of officials and ministerial offices would eliminate one of the great inefficiencies of Government: the hours wasted trying to find the right person to email.

Every pound spent on internal messaging is a pound taken away from the frontline. Every hour spent looking for an email address is time that could have been spent improving services for taxpayers.

The Government says it wants to focus on delivery. It should start by dragging Whitehall into the 21st century.

But the Government defended the spending, insisting it was "entirely normal" practice.

A Government spokesperson said: "It is entirely normal across the public and private sector to use internal communications to run effective organisations.

This includes sharing updates on training, performance reviews and departmental priorities."

The spokesperson added: "We have cut costs across the Civil Service, and are committed to reducing back-office costs by 16% to save £2.2billion a year by 2029-30."

Mr Reynolds said a single cross-government platform "would do the job better and cheaper" and adding a searchable directory of officials would "eliminate one of the great inefficiencies of Government".