While the Report welcomes Government efforts to improve efficiency, it also stresses the importance of accurately evaluating the costs and savings of major efficiency programmes, and of maintaining staff morale.
Sub-Committee Chairman, Michael Fallon MP, said: "Now that the level public debt has reached such gargantuan proportions, it is important that the Government takes steps, not only to improve efficiency in the public sector, but also to account more clearly and accurately for the savings it is making. In the face of ever more job losses in the private sector, the public sector must consider more radical solutions to reducing its burden on the taxpayer.
“Our Report also emphasises the importance of maintaining morale. Staff should be encouraged to feel proud at increasing the efficiency of their department, rather than living in a climate of fear and uncertainty."
Report recommends that the Government, in planning to put the public finances back on a sustainable basis in the medium term, considers a more business-led approach to cost cutting in the public sector than setting an arbitrary target and requiring the civil service to meet it.
