Government Efficiency Savings 2021/22
Published 19 July 2023
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In the Declaration on Government Reform, the government committed to improving cross-government functions to better support departments’ corporate activity and delivery capability, with clear standards and spending controls to maximise value for money for the taxpayer. The 14 cross government functions work across Government by forming a framework for collaboration within departments and arms length bodies, and across organisational boundaries, supporting the efficient and effective policy and services.
This publication, and accompanying Technical Note, sets out that in FY 2021/22, the central government functional teams delivered £4.4 billion of audited savings (cash releasing and non-cash releasing). Savings fall into three broad areas:
- £3.4 billion in audited cash-releasing savings: For example, £1.043 billion of savings were delivered by the Counter Fraud Function in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) by identifying and correcting fraudulently claimed Universal Credit (UC). Separately, £816 million was saved by improving the collection of low value debts by the Debt Function;
- £1.02 billion in audited non cash-releasing savings: This has been derived from the use of a due diligence platform for allocating government grants;
- This publication also gives examples of unaudited non-monetised wider benefits, summarised below.
These efficiencies and savings demonstrate the government’s commitment to deliver value from taxpayers’ money, allowing investment on government priorities.
Audited cash-releasing savings by Function
A summary of total savings by the functional team is set out below. Further information, including a list of individual audited savings, can be found in the Technical Note.
| Function (Team) | Team activity | FY 2021/22 Savings |
|---|---|---|
| Government Counter Fraud Function | The Government Counter Fraud function, with its centre now based in the dedicated Public Sector Fraud Authority, detects and prevents fraud. This includes working to understand and mitigate fraud risk within organisations and fighting economic crime. Savings include the use of data sharing and analysis to highlight anomalies that may indicate fraud, enabling targeted work by counter fraud experts. |
£1,336m |
| Government Debt Management Function | The Government Debt Management Function (GDMF) works to manage and resolve outstanding debt owed to the government. The centre for the function works with departments to collect additional debt above business-as-usual activity, including tackling aged debt, or collecting hard-to-recover debt through the private sector. The centre of the function also analyses data quality, assures data and obtains agreed savings methodology for each measure along with the approved actuals. |
£1,322m |
| Digital, Data and Technology Function (Performance and Assurance) | The Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) function supports the delivery of digital services, the use and sharing of data and the building and deployment of technology across government. The Performance and Assurance team achieves efficiencies by ensuring that digital services and technology infrastructure are delivered in accordance with best practice while achieving significant savings through simpler to use, well delivered and legally compliant services. |
£376m |
| Government Commercial Function (Markets, Sourcing and Suppliers) | The Government Commercial Function (GCF) supports the procurement of goods and services for the government. The Markets, Sourcing and Suppliers Team focuses on ensuring the right policies are in place for the government to improve decision making and the delivery of public services.The team also partners with government’s strategic suppliers. Savings are achieved through reducing the cost of supply, improving the quality of service, mitigating risk, enabling additional cost avoidance and facilitating continuous improvement of the service. |
£161m |
| Government Communications Service | The Government Communications Service uses a range of communication tools to support ministers’ priorities, enabling the efficient and effective delivery of public services. These savings have been delivered through advertising, marketing and communications (AMC) spending controls, by working with departmental and arms-length bodies’ communication teams to identify opportunities for savings, innovation and join-up; while providing specialist expertise to communication campaign plans. |
£100m |
| Government Commercial Function (Complex Transactions Team) | The Complex Transactions Team (CTT) within the Government Commercial function supports procurement of goods and services by providing commercial experts to improve people and processes that deliver better results within departments. These savings have been delivered by supporting departments to resolve legal disputes, negotiating down supplier’s price increases, and increasing output/capacity without increasing resource expenditure. | £65m |
| Government Business Services (Pensions) | Government Business Services (GBS), now integrated into the Human Resources function, delivers expertise and efficiency in back office systems and services. This saving has been delivered through a change of administrator of the Royal Mail Statutory Pensions Scheme, delivering the service at lower cost. |
£1.4m |
| - | Total | £3,362m |
Audited non-cash releasing savings
The Government Grants Management function (GGMF) ensures the effectiveness of grant funding and the efficiency of grants administration across government. The GGMF supports grant making in departments and the wider public sector through a number of activities, including the Complex Grants Advice Panel (which provides independent advice in relation to government grant spend) and through the use of digital tools such as Find a Grant and Spotlight, an online automated due-diligence tool, which complements existing checks and highlights areas of risk to inform grant-making decisions. For the financial year 2021/22, use of Spotlight resulted in audited non-cashable benefits of £1.02 billion.
Unaudited wider benefits
A summary of unaudited non-cash-releasing efficiencies/benefits by functions are below.
Analysis
The Analysis Function supports the government to make and implement evidenced policy decisions. It does this by providing expert advice, including high-quality data/evidence and through cutting-edge analytical capabilities. Examples of this include:
- The Reproducible Analytical Pipelines (RAP) delivers efficiencies by removing manual processes, allowing analysts to spend more time on value-adding activities such as data visualisation and user engagement; and
- The Integrated Data Service (IDS) allows data to be produced once and reused across departments, enabling the interrogation of various datasets in innovative ways.
Business Services
Government Business Services delivered the following non-cash efficiencies in FY 2021/22:
- The Government Resource Insight Database was created to deliver savings by automating reports;
- The Government Recruitment Service has increased efficiencies by handling a higher ratio of posts per staff member and streamlining the recruitment process, reducing the need for manual intervention; and
- The Shared Services Strategy for Government has enabled 17 Departments to form 5 clusters, resulting in savings through economies of scale, standardisation of data and processes.
Property
The Office of Government Property (OGP), the Government Property Function, drives the transformation of property used and owned by the government, supporting delivery of public services through the Government Property Strategy. OGP has enabled efficiency savings, including by:
- Supporting the relocation of 5,950 roles out of London as part of the Places for Growth strategy in 2021-2022; and
- Delivering cross-government savings as part of the assurance of departmental spend through the National Property Spend Control and joint management of the Facilities Management Spend Control.
For FY 2021/22, the State of the Estate reported more than £600 million of government property was sold and £122 million was saved through reductions in energy consumption of government buildings.
Other Central Functions
Examples of wider benefits delivered by other central functions can be found in the following publications: