21 May 2004
David James, the troubleshooter drafted in by the Conservative Party to identify possible Whitehall efficiency savings, is likely to make recommendations that would modify the way future Tory governments conduct the biennial Spending Review.
Officials at the party's central office told Public Finance that although an overhaul of the SR process, which determines how departments spend the cash identified in the chancellor's annual Budget statement, was not part of James's remit, he will suggest changes to ensure money is used more effectively.
Ed Staite, central office spokesman on economic affairs, said: 'There will be ideas within the James report that will feed into how we change the way central government gives cash to departments as part of the SR.'
In particular, James will seek to address problems created by departments spending cash allocations simply to ensure that they do not end the SR term with a surplus that would be likely to be removed from their budget by the Treasury in the following spending round. Conservatives claim James has found such problems during his assessments of Whitehall budgets.
The government has commissioned its own major study into Whitehall efficiency – by Sir Peter Gershon – which is due to report in the next few weeks. It is expected to identify supposed savings of around £20bn.
The Tories this week claimed that James has pinpointed efficiencies in excess of this figure at just four departments – Health, Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Transport and Work and Pensions.
But Staite played down reports that James could find around £80bn in total savings, saying: 'It is far too early to say.'
PFmay2004
