'Career civil servants' dominate Whitehall as dossier reveals 61% of top mandarins haven't worked in private sector

Sir Peter Schofield, the outgoing permanent secretary at the Department for Work & Pensions, is the only top mandarin with experience in a FTSE listed company.

Permanent secretaries earn between £155,000 and £220,000, meaning many of Whitehall's most senior civil servants are paid more than the Prime Minister.

Ameer Kotecha, CEO of the Centre for Government Reform, said: "The figures speak for themselves.

"Six in ten of the people running our government departments have never worked outside the public sector, and barely any have held senior roles in big companies.

"That is extraordinary in a modern economy. This is not to attack the individuals in terms of their dedication as public servants.

"But you cannot reform the machinery of government with the same narrow pool of insiders who have only ever known it from within.

"Whitehall is failing to deliver for the British people, and it will keep failing until proven business leaders – people who have built companies, met payrolls and actually delivered – are sitting at the top table alongside career officials.

"Until Ministers tackle the barriers that keep outsiders out, the rhetoric of reform will keep colliding with the reality of failure."

However, political parties of all stripes are now calling for a major shake-up in Whitehall.

Reform UK MP Danny Kruger is pushing to abolish the Cabinet Office and scrap the £210,000-a-year role of Cabinet Secretary.

Mr Kruger's 11-page blueprint also predicted 50 per cent cuts to communications, human resources and policy roles.

Reform UK is instead proposing to create a politically led Office of the Prime Minister.

Meanwhile, Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Neil O'Brien revealed the Tory Party is looking to introduce drastic changes to both the recruitment and promotion process inside Whitehall.

"We are working on plans to make the whole thing more open and end the closed shop of recruitment and promotion only from within the civil service," Mr O'Brien told GB News.

He added: "It is a big problem. When I was in Government, the best officials were those who had spent some time outside – it really changes officials' perspective and makes them less casual about putting new red tape burdens on officials."

However, governing parties have spent decades discussing radical reform in Whitehall.

Sir Tony Blair admitted only one-in-five director general posts were filled by people brought in from outside Whitehall in 2004.

The then-Prime Minister added: "We intend to continue to recruit extensively from outside the Civil Service to senior posts, including at the highest levels.

"We also need to examine the business rules to make it easier for civil servants to move into the private sector and back again."

Darren Jones, who serves as Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, also set out his intended reforms to the civil service in January.

He said: "The Government will now promote the doers, not just the talkers.

"I will do so by changing the hiring criteria for Senior Civil Servants.

"This means that, with time, at the top of the civil service we will have less experience of writing policy papers - but more experience of frontline delivery, innovation and from the private sector."

GB News has approached the Cabinet Office for comment.