Government report aims to put the front line first

Efficiency in government will doubtless become a key campaign theme in the upcoming general election, so the content of a new Government report “Smarter Government: Putting the Front Line First” comes as no surprise.

The report outlines government plans to reduce the cost of government by £100 million annually within three years by streamlining the Civil Service. Measures that will be deployed include a review of the organisational design of the Civil Service, senior pay restraint, and benchmarking the performance of individual departments and ministries against comparable overseas equivalents.

There are also plans to rationalise “arms-length bodies” (ALBs) – or executive agencies that are funded by government but which operate independently. According to the report,

the initial phase of rationalisation will include:

Abolishing 16 regional advisory committees relating to agricultural workers in England and the 15 regional committees in England that appoint each of them

  • Reducing the number of Court Boards from 23 to 19 in line with new organisational boundaries.
  • Reducing the number of separate publicly funded bodies in the skills sector by 30 over the next three years
  • Merging the Sentencing Guidelines Council and Sentencing Advisory Panel into a single Sentencing Council.
  • Merging four existing military museums into the new National Museum of the Royal Navy
  • Merging the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board with the General Medical Council
  • Abolishing HM Inspectorate of Courts Administration.

Further proposals in 2010 will provide “a much stricter governance framework for ALBs and their sponsor departments”. This will “identify opportunities to save at least £500 million by reducing duplication between organisations and streamlining the ALB landscape where appropriate”.

There will also be a more rigorous process for setting up ALBs, requiring any minister proposing a new body to publish a full assessment of why the body is needed and set out why an ALB is the most effective delivery mechanism. Sunset clauses will be introduced, requiring all new bodies to have a check-by date, when they will be subject to a fundamental review that explores whether the organisation is still needed.

Other proposals will reduce spend on consultancy by 50% and spend on marketing and communications by 25%, saving a projected £650 million; and reduce spend on IT projects by making greater use of existing systems. The most successful shared services centres will be expanded with a view to creating the first public-sector shared-service company. A specialist company of this kind could then offer services across the public sector, providing a platform for public organisations to transform their back offices more easily to reach private-sector benchmarking levels.

Collaborative procurement will be used extensively to reduce the amount government pays for goods and services. Procurement data for the biggest spending departments is to be published, showing the level of compliance with approved collaborative deals. Technology will be used to improve procurement and lower costs by:

  • Publishing plans for the use of e-auctions by the end of 2010, building on the work of the Office of Government Commerce (OGC). E-auctions can result in savings of up to 30% in some categories of spend
  • Establishing a new single online portal,which will house all government contracts worth more than £20,000 and go live in 2010/11. This will be free for businesses through the Business Link website
  • Each department will have Director responsible for service delivery, accountable for making the improvements in contract development and management.

It is hoped that by making these changes, the government can cut the deficit without cutting frontline services that are popular with voters. Whether this will be possible remains to be seen, but there are opportunities available even in this time of reduced spending for those companies that have a track record of cutting waste in both the public and private sectors.

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