To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will set out in the Official Report a breakdown of the £1,300 million savings by Departments resulting from the work of the efficiency unit referred to in his speech to the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants on 9 May.
[holding answer 19 June 1990]: The figure of £1,300 million is a cumulative total of savings agreed by Departments as a result of over 350 scrutinies and multi-departmental reviews carried out since 1979 under the guidance of the Prime Minister's efficiency unit.Scrutinies and the savings resulting from them are the responsibility of the departmental Minister concerned. However, I am informed by the efficiency unit that, in the period 1983–90, a period for which disaggregated information is readily available, the largest departmental contributors in absolute terms were the Employment Group, the Departments of Health and Social Security, the Ministry of Defence and the Inland Revenue.