Topical Questions

Oral Answers to Questions — Cabinet Office – in the House of Commons at 11:30 am on 7 November 2012.

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Photo of Craig Whittaker Craig Whittaker Conservative, Calder Valley 11:30, 7 November 2012

If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

Photo of Francis Maude Francis Maude The Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

My responsibilities as Minister for the Cabinet Office are for the public sector efficiency and reform group, civil service issues, industrial relations in the public sector, Government transparency, civil contingency, civil society and cyber-security.

Photo of Craig Whittaker Craig Whittaker Conservative, Calder Valley

My local authority currently gives teaching unions £8,000 a year out of the schools budget, as well as giving Unison £27,000 in cash and paying for its offices. In the light of the differences between the private and public sectors in this area, may I ask my right hon. Friend what is being done to bring this into line across the civil service?

Photo of Francis Maude Francis Maude The Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

Anyone who has responsibility for spending public money needs to ensure that it is spent on the front-line services on which citizens depend. In the civil service, we discovered that 248 civil servants were doing nothing but trade union work at the taxpayers’ expense. Following our consultation, we have introduced tough new controls that will more than halve the cost of trade union activity to the taxpayer.

Photo of Andrew Slaughter Andrew Slaughter Shadow Minister (Justice)

As the Minister seems to love contracting out work to the cosy cartel of G4S, A4e, Serco and Capita, does he not think that transparency should extend to those companies as much as it does to the public sector?

Photo of Francis Maude Francis Maude The Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

We can, of course, build appropriate levels of transparency into contracts when services are contracted out. That process was taken a lot further by the previous Government, so it is not a feature of the coalition Government. I will pass on the hon. Gentleman’s concern to my right and hon. Friends in the Ministry of Justice.

Photo of Simon Kirby Simon Kirby Conservative, Brighton, Kemptown

Will the Minister update the House on the launch of gov.uk and the savings he expects to make?

Photo of Francis Maude Francis Maude The Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

We published our digital strategy yesterday and launched gov.uk recently. We will make significant savings—gov.uk will save £36 million and, ultimately, when all the Departments migrate over to it, between £50 million and £70 million a year, and that is just to provide a much better service for citizens. As more and more of the transactions that people undertake with Government are moved online, we expect to save nearly £2 billion a year, and that is for a better service for the consumer.

Photo of Simon Danczuk Simon Danczuk Labour, Rochdale

The National Audit Office report into Whitehall’s budget management showed that just 0.2% of Government spending is in the form of departmental joint submissions. There are opportunities for greater joint working and to save more money; what are Ministers doing to improve this?

Photo of Francis Maude Francis Maude The Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

I think that every Minister in every Government I have ever known or observed would say that there is scope for much better joined-up activity between Departments. As a result of the civil service reform plan that we are now pushing through, with the strong support of the leadership of the civil service, we should have much greater interchange between Departments to break down the silos that partly cause the problem to which the hon. Gentleman rightly refers.

Photo of Karl McCartney Karl McCartney Conservative, Lincoln

Will my right hon. Friend update the House on the progress of the efficiency and reform group in driving savings across Government Departments?

Photo of Chloe Smith Chloe Smith The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office

After the last general election, we set up that group to deal with the monstrous waste that the Labour Government presided over. It is a tribute to the hard work of civil servants here and across Whitehall that we saved taxpayers £3.75 billion in the first year and £5.5 billion last year. We are accelerating that work and targeting £8 billion this year.

Photo of Kate Green Kate Green Shadow Minister (Equalities)

The civil service has traditionally been a good employer of women, black and minority ethnic staff and disabled staff. What equality measures are the Government taking to ensure that a 23% cut in staff by 2015 will have no adverse impact?

Photo of Francis Maude Francis Maude The Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

I am grateful for the hon. Lady’s confirmation that the civil service is a good and diverse employer. I expect that to continue.

Photo of James Gray James Gray Conservative, North Wiltshire

Government spending on advertising and consultants of all kinds is nearly always wasteful, profligate and—[ Interruption. ]

Photo of John Bercow John Bercow Chair, Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, Chair, Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, Speaker of the House of Commons, Speaker of the House of Commons, Chair, Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, Chair, Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission

Order. This is straightforwardly discourteous. The hon. Gentleman is trying to ask a question. I want the Minister to hear it and to answer. If, instead of rabbiting away from a sedentary position when their views are of no interest or concern whatever, people were to have the manners to listen, that would help.

Photo of James Gray James Gray Conservative, North Wiltshire

Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Government spending on advertising and consultants is nearly always wasteful, extravagant and profligate. What was the annual spend of the previous Government, how much has my right hon. Friend managed to cut it by, and what further plans does he have to squeeze this kind of waste out of Government spending?

Photo of Francis Maude Francis Maude The Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

We saved nearly £400 million a year by restricting the spend on advertising and marketing, which was wholly incontinent under the previous Government. There are sometimes good cases for using consultants, but we have cut the spend on them by nearly 70%. These disciplines will continue for the future.

Photo of Chris Bryant Chris Bryant Shadow Minister (Home Affairs)

The Minister boasts about the Government’s transparency. The Cabinet Office still holds a large cache of e-mails from Andy Coulson to Rebekah Brooks. When will the Minister publish them?

Photo of Francis Maude Francis Maude The Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

I think that the hon. Gentleman needs to change the record.