10 September 2010
Three ideas for cutting the deficit put forward by members of the public are to be taken forward, the government said today.
The number of criminal record checks for junior doctors will be cut, plastic national insurance cards will be replaced by a letter and old government furniture and equipment will be auctioned online.
The ideas were among 100,000 submitted through the Spending Challenge website, set up by the Treasury in the summer to allow people to suggest cuts. Some 63,000 of all the ideas put forward so far have come from public sector workers.
Chancellor George Osborne said: ‘No one idea will solve the problems we face, but taken together they can make a real contribution to reducing the deficit and rebalancing the country’s economy at a crucial time. People’s ideas will have a real impact on the tough decisions ahead.’
The ‘more common sense approach’ to criminal record checks for junior doctors, such as not assessing them every six months when they move training posts, is expected to save the NHS £1m a year. NHS Employers welcomed this move, advising checks every three years rather than on every rotation.
The Treasury estimated that the phasing out of national insurance cards would save another £1m. The Ministry of Defence and the Cabinet Office will pilot the use of an online auction site to sell surplus and second-hand equipment in the autumn.
But unions have responded sceptically to the public consultation over spending cuts. A spokesman for the Public and Commercial Services union said today’s ‘ad hoc measures’ would gain only ‘miniscule amounts’.
He added: ‘There is a proper economic alternative to the spending cuts. The government should be creating jobs rather than cutting them and investing properly in the public sector to help the economy to grow.
‘At the same time, rather than slashing jobs and resources at HM Revenue and Customs, it should be collecting the £123bn of tax that is evaded and avoided every year.’
