By David Williams
14 September 2010
Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt today told MPs that his ministry will have to be ‘more imaginative than any other department in Whitehall’ in seeking to slash its costs by half.
Giving evidence to the Commons culture, media and sport select committee this morning, Hunt defended his plans to cut running costs at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport by 50%.
Stripping back administration was the best way to protect organisations that depend on government grants, he claimed.
Hunt told Conservative chair John Whittingdale that he wanted to continue with all the core activities currently carried out by the department, despite the unparalleled cuts.
‘We will have to do things differently, we will have to do things more efficiently, and we will have to be more imaginative than any other department in Whitehall because I’m not aware that any other department has set such an ambitious goal,’ he said.
Hunt also told the group of cross-party MPs that, although he had no firm target for reducing headcount at the department, there would be ‘considerably fewer employees’ in the future.
DCMS permanent secretary Jonathan Stephens said there was a budget of around £100m for restructuring the department, including redundancies. Currently there are around 400 staff posts that could be subject to review, and around 70 positions are to go in the current financial year.
Stephens added that ‘natural wastage’ and voluntary redundancies would be the preferred means of shedding staff.
But Hunt could not rule out compulsory redundancies. ‘It is not a reflection of the professionalism of people at DCMS, for whom I have the highest regard, but it is a reflection of our priority, which is to protect the front line,’ he said.
The department will also leave its current headquarters in Cockspur Street, Westminster for cheaper, smaller premises by the end of the next Spending Review period, Hunt confirmed.
Cutting departmental costs by half would save £28m a year, Hunt said, while culling quangos could save another £25m a year. The combined sum amounted to the typical annual grant given to a major institution such as the British Museum.
Despite the early abolitions of two non-departmental bodies – the UK Film Council and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council – Hunt denied he was an ‘eager assassin’. He told the committee that he believed in the ‘arm’s-length principle’ and repeated his pledge not to scrap Arts Council England.
