Civil servants could face sack if they do not save taxpayer cash

He said the public “must be confident we are spending every pound of their money well”.

“It is vital that senior leaders are not just encouraged, but held responsible for this,” McFadden said.

“We need them to build productive and high performing teams, to deliver on our plan to put more money in people’s pockets, get the NHS back on its feet and rebuild Britain.

“We will introduce new checks to identify and tackle poor performance where we find it, and to recognise the good work of senior leaders across the civil service.”

As part of a spending review due to conclude in June, government departments have been told to find efficiency savings worth 5% of their budgets. Back in December a government source said this could see 10,000 jobs cut.

Other changes introduced in the new performance policy published by the Cabinet Office on Thursday include measures to identify poor performance.

McFadden is not the first Cabinet Office minister to attempt to improve performance in the Civil Service.

Conservative paymaster general John Glen said high performance in Whitehall was not “recognised, rewarded or incentivised properly”, and suggested linking civil service pay to performance.

He also warned he would crack down on poor performance, saying it was “all too easy for leaders to let people move to another team, to let the poor performer become someone else’s problem”.