The chancellor, George Osborne, and the chief secretary to the Treasury, David Laws (pictured), announced the creation of the Efficiency and Reform Group this morning as part of their plans to save more than £6 billion of spending this financial year.
The group, chaired jointly by Laws and the minister for the Cabinet Office and paymaster general, Francis Maude, will have the power to make sure departments work together to tackle waste and improve accountability across a range of areas, including civil service expenses and recruitment, ICT spend, procurement, advertising and marketing spend.
One of their "first priorities" will be to "implement a programme to simplify HR functions across Whitehall and, wherever possible, eradicate duplication". This will be with immediate effect, according to the Cabinet Office.
The news emerged as Osborne and Laws revealed the details of the savings planned to help tackle the £156 billion deficit. Among these are a freeze on non-frontline civil service recruitment, saving £190 million, and the end of "ineffective elements of employment programmes" including the Young Person's Guarantee. Train to Gain, one of Labour's flagship programmes used by companies as diverse as London Zoo, Radisson Edwardian Hotels and jam and spreads company Duerrs, is being cut. However, there will be £150 million extra funding for 50,000 new adult apprenticeship places at small and medium-sized companies.
Any central government pay packet higher than the prime minister's will have to be approved by Laws. With the Cabinet last week agreeing to a 5% cut in pay, this means any salary more than £142,500. More details on civil service pay will be outlined in the emergency budget on 22 June.
Speaking this morning Laws said: "The years of public-sector plenty are over, but the more decisively we act the quicker and stronger we can come through these tough times.
"We also promise to cut with care, we are going to be a progressive government even in these tough times."
He added that there would be "even tougher decisions" ahead but denied yesterday's report in the Sunday Times that 300,000 public-sector workers would lose their jobs over the coming years, saying that the greatest job impact will come by not filling posts.
However, while CIPD chief economic adviser John Philpott believes the cuts are right he said the timing was wrong and the Government could be taking a risk with UK unemployment. "Though they no longer dare say it, higher unemployment may be once again considered a price worth paying," he said.
Osborne unveiled the size of cuts across Whitehall departments, including £836 million at the Department of Business, Skills and Innovation and £670 million at Education.
HR in Whitehall to be simplified to allow fast implementation of Government's savings plans
HR functions across Whitehall are to be simplified in one of the first acts by the new joint Treasury-Cabinet Office group set up to ensure savings in Government happen quickly.
