LONDON, July 29 (UPI) -- The British Ministry of Defense is cutting 7,000 more civilian jobs, a top official says.
The cuts are laid out in a letter from Permanent Undersecretary Ursula Brennan, The Guardian reported Friday.
With 25,000 previously announced reductions, the defense civil service, whose tasks include making sure contracts do not go over budget, will now be slashed by a third within nine years.
Defense Secretary Liam Fox announced plans last week to reduce the army by 7,000 military positions but did not mention further civilian cuts.
The Brennan letter states the department needs to "bear down further on non-frontline costs. … For civilians, we will be extending the earlier planned reductions, coming down to a total of 53,000 civilians by 2020."
Union leaders said the announcement reflected "what the MoD can afford, not what it needs."
Despite major cutbacks announced in last year's strategic defense and security review, the military budget was still more than 1 billion pounds ($1.64 billion) higher than projections.
