Departmental Public Expenditure
Energy and Climate Change
Written answers and statements, 5 November 2009
Mark Todd (South Derbyshire, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what steps his Department is taking to implement the efficiency recommendations of the Operational Efficiency programme relating to his Department; and what training is available to (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department in respect of the delivery of value for money savings.
Joan Ruddock (Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change; Lewisham, Deptford, Labour)
DECC has a target to find £20 million of savings in 2010-11 as part of the £5 billion Operational Efficiency Programme (OEP). £17.5 million of this will be found from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority's non-programme budgets and £2.5 million from core-DECC budgets. These targets will be met through a combination of innovation and strict control of expenditure. DECC has also contributed to the OEP work on the benchmarking of back office costs.
My noble Friend the Minister of State has been appointed as DECC's Value for Money (VfM) Minister and as such participated in a Treasury-led seminar in the summer. DECC officials are members of the cross-government VfM Group. Additionally, a wide range of learning and development opportunities are available for officials, many of which are focused on driving VfM.