Government Efficiency Savings

Cabinet Office and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 22 March 2017.

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Photo of Geoffrey Clifton-Brown Geoffrey Clifton-Brown Conservative, The Cotswolds 12:00, 22 March 2017

What steps he is taking to support Government departments in delivering efficiency savings.

Photo of Ben Gummer Ben Gummer The Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

The Government are conducting an efficiency review to deliver savings and embed an efficiency culture into government. The Chief Secretary and I are leading the review together. Cabinet Office functions provide support, expertise and assurance, helping Departments to work together to cut waste and inefficiency.

Photo of Geoffrey Clifton-Brown Geoffrey Clifton-Brown Conservative, The Cotswolds

What progress is being made with the single departmental delivery plans across every Government Department? How will they align cost savings and Government policy initiatives more closely to deliver our manifesto?

Photo of Ben Gummer Ben Gummer The Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

The House, especially those interested in plans, will be pleased to know that this is the first time in the history of Government plans that we have done a second iteration of a plan—that is an exciting point. We are aligning the plans with the efficiency review, which means that, amazingly, we are going to plan government with money at the same time.

Photo of Chris Evans Chris Evans Labour/Co-operative, Islwyn

The electrification of the railway from Paddington to Swansea has an overspend of £1.2 billion. The Minister knows that it is not an isolated case, with a number of infrastructure projects overspending. What is the Department doing to ensure, before the Government sign contracts, that the targets are not over-optimistic?

Photo of Ben Gummer Ben Gummer The Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

The hon. Gentleman makes a serious point. The Infrastructure and Projects Authority was set up to assess infrastructure projects rigorously, which is why we have been able to reduce the number of overspends he correctly identifies. The complex transactions unit in my Department also assesses transactions before they happen to make sure that we are protecting the Government. I hope the big projects that are coming down the line are going to be framed even better than others have been in the past few years.