Expert teams to cut wasteful duplication

The government has announced a suite of reviews designed to root out wasteful duplication.

Teams will be brought in from across the public and private sector to give their expertise.

The reviews will be launched across bringing healthcare out of hospitals, homelessness, the provision of youth services and the management and maintenance of public sector assets.

For example, out-of-classroom youth provision, which currently costs over £1 billion a year, will be reviewed to make a fragmented system spread across multiple departments and local government for each young person more efficient and effective.

Other teams will investigate how departments take a more preventive approach to tackling homelessness. Currently over three quarters of government expenditure on homelessness is spent on temporary accommodation.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury James Murray said: "These reviews will scrutinise government programmes to ensure they improve people’s lives while rooting out wasteful spend from the public sector. We have a duty to taxpayers to make sure every pound of their money works as hard in government as the people who earn it."