Public Services (Hansard, 9 May 1994)

§ 33. Mr. Devlin
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what initiatives his Department has launched to obtain the best value for money from public services.

§ Mr. Waldegrave
My Department co-ordinates a range of initiatives under the banner of the citizens charter that help to improve value for money in the delivery of public services. These include the "Competing for Quality" programme and "next steps", as well as the charter initiative itself. As the citizens charter second report announced, £135 million of savings have been achieved under the "Competing for Quality" programme.

§ Mr. Devlin
In evaluating the value-for-money initiatives that he is taking, will my right hon. Friend bear in mind the fact that the home civil service has an unenviable reputation throughout the world for its objectivity and lack of corruption? Will he ensure that those values are enshrined in any "next steps" agencies that he establishes?

§ Mr. Enright
Unenviable?

§ Mr. Waldegrave
I think that my hon. Friend meant to say an enviable record, in which case all hon. Members would agree with him that that is so. My hon. Friend is right that the maintenance of those standards, which are envied worldwide, is a central objective of policy in the changes that we are making and have made in the civil service in the past 10 years.

§ Mr. Winnick
Is not it clear that this Government provide the worst possible value for money? Did not the electorate make it clear last week that they considered that the Government were totally discredited and divided and that the sooner they went, the better?

§ Mr. Waldegrave
In the time that I have been here—since 1979—I have heard the hon. Gentleman make similar remarks, usually about two years before elections that we win.

§ Mr. Ian Bruce
Should not we ensure in the European parliamentary elections that the socialists are defeated so that the European Parliament can work with this Government to ensure that we maintain good public services and the minimum number of civil servants?

§ Mr. Waldegrave
All the efficiency gains made in both British Government and British industry would be lost as a result of the centralising tendencies that both Opposition parties would reinforce in the European Community.

§ Mr. Meacher
As the right hon. Gentleman has stated that market testing of public services is his flagship project; as he has estimated, although he has never substantiated it, that it achieves savings of £100 million a year; and as the Cabinet Office efficiency unit has officially estimated the cost of consultancies at £565 million last year, with savings of a mere £10 million, should not he do what any chief executive would do if his pet project turned into a field day for waste and corruption—namely, resign—or is the pay-back to the Tory party from those jobs for the boys such that even he can cling to office, like the Prime Minister?

§ Mr. Waldegrave
Not for the first time, the hon. Member has completely confused himself, but he will not confuse the House. Savings of about £135 million have been achieved by market testing. The annualised cost of consultants is probably about £1 million. The total cost of consultants is about £10 million. The hon. Member for Norwich, South (Mr. Garrett) is a distinguished management consultant and used to work for Inbucon, so perhaps he will be able to put his hon. Friend right on some of these matters.