//But are you really saying the whole civil service is failing because of 5 stories.//
I don't have the time to study every government department. The ones I have chosen I have picked deliberately because their inefficiencies are having a profound effect on many people's lives. As well as that, they are not intended to be single anecdotes about one or two examples that may have gone awry. They explain that there is symptomatic failure on a large scale.
//You do realise there is not the office space for everyone to work in the office?
In my department alone there is 4 desks for 10 staff that is utterly stupid//
I'm not trying to find explanations. I'm simply pointing out that many facets of the Civil Service simply don't work and they are causing mass inconvenience. As an example, when one applies for a passport renewal, the old passport has to be surrendered before processing on the replacement will begin. This means people may be unable to travel for up to ten weeks or often more. Your acceptance that the passport office fails every year simply confirms my contention.
// the government have let out office space in our nice new building to other government departments cutting desks even further.//
The government does not manage the day to day affairs of the Civil Service. Senior Civil Servants do. They are not loathe to defy the government when it suits them - they have been told to return to their offices and many have flatly refused. There is no reason to suspect that they have succumbed to government orders about property when they have probably taken the decision themselves.
Although this thread is about Civil Service numbers, inefficiencies and poor customer service are not restricted to government offices. Much of the private sector has also sunk into a torpor following the pandemic. A week or so ago I spent just under an hour holding on the phone to get an answer from a large tour company. My call was "important to them." It was pretty important to me too as there was a problem with a large payment I had made. A few minutes into our conversation I was asked by the agent if I would hold on as it had begun raining and she had to get the washing in from the garden. I gave her the choice of continuing with my enquiry or taking the risk of someone from on high descending upon her to discuss her "customer care" capabilities. She continued the call.