Gov slightly behind on two-year £60m savings target

Thursday 03 February 2022

The Government made £56.8m of its £60m savings target across 2020 and 2021, as part of its £120m four-year savings programme.

£31.8m of this was achieved in 2021, against a target of £35m, with the Government commenting that continuing its 'rebalancing' plan was "challenging" during covid.

The figures were released by Government to a panel of politicians responsible for scrutinising the Government Plan, after they stated that it was "unclear what will be done to ensure £120m of recurring efficiencies across 2020 to 2024 and what impact on public services these have had."

The Government first set a target to make £100m in 'savings' in 2019 - at the time, it was stated that services would not be cut, but that money would be saved by finding cheaper ways to deliver them and reducing "duplication".

A full plan for achieving that was published later in the year - it included new charges, higher education course fee hikes, workforce reduction, and a clampdown on business trips.

In the latest Government Plan, released last year, a broader plan to make up £120m in efficiencies between 2020-2024 was revealed, with staffing measures making up around a fifth of the overall savings target of £20m by the end of 2022 - around 50 staff, according to Chief Operating Officer John Quinn.

Pictured: The Chief Minister and Treasury Minister responded with the figures after questions from the panel scrutinising the Government plan.

Addressing whether the savings identified so far were "one-offs" or ones that would continue to buffer finances in years to come, the Chief Minister and Treasury Minister said this week: "Of the savings achieved to date, 97.7% are recurring.

"The non-recurring savings (£1.3m) and the shortfall (£3.7m), namely £5m, will be carried forward and added to the target in 2022."

They said that these numbers remain subject to external audit review and may change.