Plan to cut Whitehall waste
Government departments are to centralise the way they purchase goods and services in a bid to drive down costs.
It follows an efficiency review carried out by Topshop boss Sir Philip Green which concluded the Whitehall was not making the most of its scale and buying power.
Under the plans, a central government procurement team will be created to contract for widely-used goods and services across Government at a single price.
The move aims to halt poor-value contracts where government departments and agencies paid between £350 and £2,000 for the same laptop and between £85 and £240 for the same printer cartridge from the same supplier.
Meanwhile the Ministry of Defence is expected to double the number of civilian job losses at the department to 8,000.
The union Prospect described the move as "incomprehensible", saying: "A few weeks ago the MoD ruled out any increase on the 4,000 figure this year, saying it would be too risky to let more staff go in the current operational climate.
"Suddenly it is seized with panic and doubles the scale of job losses before it has even got approval from the Treasury to pay the redundancy bills.
"This is indicative of a department that has lost its ability to cope with the financial pressures it is facing. It is short-termism gone mad.”
Also today business secretary Vince Cable completes his tour of Japan, where he is expected to encourage UK firms to increase trade and investment in the country.
And the Commons environment, food and rural affairs committee publishes its report 'Implementation of the Common Fisheries Policy: Domestic Fisheries Management'.
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