You can argue about the detail but in general the Institute of Fiscal Studies have got a point that over the next week all political parties should go further in telling voters where the spending cuts would fall. The Labour Party are judged the worst offenders in only identifying 13% of what is required. The IFS have been a bit soft on the Lib Dems letting them get away with vague stuff about "tackling tax avoidance and evasion" - £4.6 billion. What is needed is tackling their policy avoidance and evasion.
But with all parties facing a gap of around £50 billion I think it is reasonable for voters to want more information. Nick Wood may be right that it is too late to add to the shopping list of proposed cuts. But I think we can give voters more of an idea of the type of savings we will be looking for. Dizzy has already noted that the Written Questions put down by Conservative front benchers give a pretty good clue.
The following briefing from CCHQ yesterday offers some good examples:
Revealed – how Gordon Brown burns your money on waste and excess Official research exposes massive spending on temps, taxis and spin at taxpayers’ expense
New figures have emerged of how Gordon Brown’s government has been wasting taxpayers’ money on excessive and inefficient bureaucracy. Parliamentary Questions by Conservatives have forced the Labour Minister to reveal a detailed and otherwise unnoticed breakdown of £45 billion of Whitehall procurement expenditure, slipped out during the Budget.
It exposes:
Whitehall spends £11 million a year on taxis, with the Ministry of Justice topping the list at £3.4 million a year. The cost of taxis is equivalent to filling 140,000 more potholes a year.
External communications and marketing spend cost taxpayers £564 million a year; the biggest spin spender was the Home Office burning through £73 million rather than policing the streets.
A staggering £881 million a year is spent on temporary staff, with the Home Office spending £161 million on temps. The yearly cost of temps would pay the salaries of 33,000 police constables.
The cost of office furniture is £57 million a year, with the Ministry of Justice burning through £11 million, followed by the Ministry of Defence at £10 million.
Procuring government databases and computers costs £5.8 billion a year; after the MoD, the Department of Work & Pensions is the biggest spender at £947 million to run Britain's increasingly complex benefits and pensions regime.
Hiring external and management consultants cost taxpayers £1.6 billion a year, with the Ministry of Defence spending £204 million, followed by the Department for Transport £144 million a year. Just halving consultancy spend would pay for a two-year council tax freeze across England.
This report is only a £45 billion snapshot of Whitehall spending that has been logged and recorded; total procurement expenditure across the public sector is estimated in the report at £220 billion.
This comes as Parliamentary Questions show that productivity in the public sector has fallen year-on-year since 1998 according to the Office of National Statistics; by contrast, private sector
productivity has risen. Conservative policies to cut such waste in the public sector include:Publish online details of all spending on goods and services over £25,000, as well as details of all government tender documents for contracts over £10,000.
Impose an immediate moratorium on all proposed existing and new ICT procurement projects, and stop future ICT mega-projects which exceed £100 million in value.
Cut back spending on government spin and advertising and on unnecessary consultants.
Introduce a formal duty in senior Civil Service contrasts to ensure value for money, and structure their salaries for increasing efficiency – thus rewarding them for saving money, not spending it.
Francis Maude, Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office, said:“Gordon Brown has imposed tax upon tax on hard-working families and local firms, yet he’s wasted our money. Rather than improving our public services, it’s gone on a culture of excess with massive spin, furniture and taxi bills, and a culture of inefficiency – bringing in expensive consultants, temps and databases. Five more years of Gordon Brown will just make things worse. A Conservative Government will get the country moving, scrap Labour’s jobs tax and deliver value for money for hard-pressed taxpayers.”
FALLING PRODUCTIVITY
Between 1997 and 2007, public service productivity fell by 3.4 per cent – an average fall of 0.3 per cent a year (ONS, Total Public Service Output and Productivity, June/August 2009, p.2; Hansard, 25 January 2010, Col. 668W).http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmhansrd/cm100125/text/100125w0035.htm
By contrast, productivity in the private sector grew by an average of 2.3 per cent a year in the same period (ONS data, cited by Reform, The front line, December 2009).
The tables below how the top ten spender and the total bills based on this dossier of government procurement spend.
Source: OGC, Collaborative Procurement: Publication of Spend Data, March 2010.http://www.ogc.gov.uk/procurement_public_spending.asp
TAXI BILLS – TOP TEN
Taxi costs £ million
Ministry of Justice £3.4
Ministry of Defence £2.2
Home Office £1.5
Foreign & Commonwealth Office £1.0
Cabinet Office £0.6
Department for Work and Pensions £0.4
Olympic Delivery Authority £0.1
UK Film Council £0.1
DCSF - Core £0.1
Communities and Local Government £0.1
WHITEHALL TOTAL £10.9
By contrast, the average cost of filing a pothole in England is £78
(Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance Survey 2010, p.3).
http://www.asphaltindustryalliance.com/alarm.asp
SPIN SPEND – TOP TEN
Communications and marketing Advertising Marketing Promotion
Uncategorised Total - £ million
Home Office £70.1 £2.9 £0.3 £0.0 £73.2
Department for Work and Pensions £0.0 £0.0 £0.0 £55.3 £55.3
Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills £0.5 £48.5 £0.0 £0.0 £49.0
Learning & Skills Council £0.0 £0.0 £0.0 £47.5 £47.5
Department for Transport £0.1 £0.6 £0.3 £38.6 £39.5
Communities and Local Government £9.7 £11.7 £2.2 £1.4 £25.0
DCSF - Core £7.3 £17.1 £0.1 £0.0 £24.6
Defra - Core £17.8 £3.6 £0.0 £0.0 £21.4
HM Revenue and Customs £0.7 £0.0 £19.2 £0.0 £19.9
Ministry of Defence £10.5 £4.5 £4.5 £0.0 £19.5
WHITEHALL TOTAL £175.8 £145.7 £58.0 £185.0 £564.4
TEMPS – TOP TEN
Temporary staff £ million
Home Office £161.0
Ministry of Justice £92.0
Ministry of Defence £77.5
Department for Work and Pensions £63.3
Defra - Core £48.5
Environment Agency £41.7
Foreign & Commonwealth Office £31.2
Insolvency Service £27.9
Animal Health £24.9
HM Revenue and Customs £24.2
Olympic Delivery Authority £20.9
WHITEHALL TOTAL £880.7
By contrast, according to the Police Federation, a Police Constable on two years’ service earns £26,787 a year.
http://www.polfed.org/constables/571D5E8256C3465494EBBA41D69E1C85.asp
OFFICE FURNITURE – TOP TEN
Office furniture £ million
Ministry of Justice £11.2
Ministry of Defence £9.9
HM Revenue and Customs £6.2
Environment Agency £2.9
Natural History Museum £2.2
Department for International Development £2.1
Department for Transport £2.1
Foreign & Commonwealth Office £2.1
Home Office £2.0
DCSF - Core £1.8
WHITEHALL TOTAL £57.3
ELECTRICITY BILLS – TOP TEN
Electricity bills £ million
Ministry of Defence £227.3
Ministry of Justice £55.8
HM Revenue and Customs £27.7
Home Office £14.5
Foreign & Commonwealth Office £11.9
Environment Agency £6.2
Olympic Delivery Authority £5.7
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills £4.5
Homes and Community Agency £3.4
Coal Authority £2.4
WHITEHALL TOTAL £392.6
ICT TECHNOLOGY – TOP TEN
ICT £ million
Ministry of Defence £1,507.5
Department for Work and Pensions £946.8
HM Revenue and Customs £805.4
Home Office £617.4
Ministry of Justice £429.3
Department for Transport £397.4
Foreign & Commonwealth Office £107.7
Defra - Core £103.5
Communities and Local Government £86.2
Learning & Skills Council £73.6
WHITEHALL TOTAL £5,750.0
CONSULTANTS – TOP TEN
Consultancy £ million
Ministry of Defence £203.9
Department for Transport £144.2
Department for Work and Pensions £114.8
Home Office £106.9
London Development Agency £71.4
DCSF - Core £70.6
HM Revenue and Customs £61.6
Homes and Community Agency £56.4
Olympic Delivery Authority £53.0
Ministry of Justice £49.7
WHITEHALL TOTAL £1,570.7
