Push for public sector productivity drive

The Chancellor has outlined plans to deliver up to £1.8 billion worth of benefits by 2029 by improving public sector productivity.

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, is promoting public sector productivity as an alternative to accepting an ever-increasing bill for public services as the government attempts to move on from the high spending and high tax approach felt from the pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The Office for Budget Responsibility said a return to pre-pandemic levels could save the equivalent of £20 billion.  

The government said a focus on frontline services, such as teaching and healthcare, is needed on the long-term decisions required to strengthen the economy. The plan is to free up thousands of police officer hours spent on admin, to instead help tackle crime, and expand the violence reduction unit model, in the hope of reducing violent offences.

Hunt said: "There is too much waste in the system and we want public servants to get back to doing what matters most: teaching our children, keeping us safe and treating us when we’re sick."

He added the aim is to improve the wait times for services like MRI scans, as well as freeing up police time to attend more burglaries and domestic abuse cases. This will be done by minimising administration time using AI and new softwares.

Hunt said; "Over 130,000 patients a year, including those waiting for cancer results, will receive their test results sooner as a result of over one hundred MRI scanners in England being upgraded with Artificial Intelligence designed to recognise patterns in scans through machine learning which will cut scan times by over a third."

He said plans are also underway to deliver on the Police Productivity Review which found that up to 38 million hours of officer time could be saved every year.

The government hopes to save up to 55,000 hours a year of administrative time in the justice system by digitising jury bundles and using new software to streamline probation decisions.

They also want to save up to £100 million for the public purse by reducing fraud through the use of AI across government to make it easier to spot and catch fraudsters.

Read the full list of proposed improvements below.