Simon Burns – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Simon Burns on 2015-11-26.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to implement efficiency savings across government departments.

Matthew Hancock

In May 2010 the deficit between government revenue and public spending was the largest percentage of GDP of any developed country. As part of our long-term economic plan to ensure the country lives within its means, we took action to drive efficiency from day one.

By 2014/15 the Government had saved £18.6 billion through efficiency and reform, and tackling fraud, error and uncollected debt (against a 2009/10 baseline). At a very conservative estimate this is equivalent to £850 for each working household across Britain.

The £18.6 billion saving includes £6.1 billion by improving how government buys goods and services and £1.5 billion by transforming how government works, including putting services and transactions online and rationalising the government’s property portfolio – releasing government land, by moving to shared property and using less office space, enables land to be released which can be put to better economic use.