The Cabinet Office white paper on “Smarter Government” has been leaked by the Tories over the weekend. It is full of promises to make efficiency savings, move more civil servants out of London, sell public assets and the usual stuff.
It also has the whiff of a document cobbled together at short notice, judging by some of the promises in the draft (published after last week’s cabinet meeting where the strategy was approved).
For example:
“reducing the administrative expenditure of arms-length bodies by at least X% will save up to £Xbn a year”
“modernising working practices and the way we locate the business of government could save X%”
“we will reconfigure/merge (x) arms-length bodies. These are the (DN: to be confirmed by MISC38)
“(Prof X) has been appointed to advise the prime minister and chancellor on the scope for further relocations”
UPDATE
It also turns out that a lot of the “substance” of the document – out tomorrow – is recycled old numbers. £9bn of efficiency savings by 2013/14? In the last Budget. £16bn of asset sales? Several months old. Moving civil servants out of Whitehall? It’s been happening for nearly six years.
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey
