John Redwood – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Redwood on 2014-04-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what levels of stock his Department holds of (a) stationery, (b) printer cartridges, (c) treasury tags and other fasteners and (d) other office consumables.

Brandon Lewis

My Department does not routinely record this information in the format requested. However, this Administration has cut spending significantly on office supplies, cutting expenditure from £480,180 (inc VAT) in 2009-10 to £73,738 in 2013-14.

In 2010, we conducted an internal review of the Department’s spend on office supplies which highlighted several opportunities to achieve savings. A rationalised list of stationery items was created which:

· reduced the available catalogue of items from around 3,500 to approximately 220;

· replaced higher value branded items, with non-branded equivalents; and

· adopted recycled printer toners and copier paper.

Significant savings were also achieved by aggregating the spend of all Departments and awarding a single Cabinet Office contract for stationery items and one for electronic office supplies (printer toners and other consumables). These contracts were awarded in September 2011 and DCLG were among the first departments to adopt them in November 2011.

As part of our planned move of office accommodation this summer (to share with the Home Office to save taxpayers’ money), stationery across the department will be surrendered and pooled, with the potential to save money by not ordering items locally and preventing a build-up of surplus stationery stock.

I hope this illustrates how every bit of the public sector has the potential to deliver sensible savings on back office costs.