The Department for Education is cutting IT staff among 1,000 job losses to reduce total headcount by a quarter.
The announcement comes as the government aims to shrink Whitehall to its smallest size since the Second World War under the Civil Service Reform Plan .
Research from Computer Weekly earlier this year found the Department for Education (DfE) had more that 160 IT staff. But the DfE was unable to say how many IT roles would go in the move.
A spokeswoman from the DfE said the department would reduce the size of its backroom HR and IT staff. She said the department would concentrate on cutting red tape.
The research from Computer Weekly also found that central government has a total of 8,000 IT staff.
Government sources estimate total average employment costs per IT worker, including pensions, benefits and workplace accommodation spend, is around £60,000 per year. This means Whitehall could be spending around £500m on IT staffing costs every year.
The DfE will also merge offices in a bid to cut costs.
"The DfE had already committed to reducing its administrative budget in real terms by 42% from 2010-11 to 2014-15. Following the review, our target is a 50% reduction to £290 million by 2015-16 and we have already achieved over half of these savings," said the spokeswoman.
