'Star chamber' to test ministers' cutting plans
Monday, 7 June 2010 5:31 PM
By politics.co.uk staff
Ministers will have to justify their spending cuts before a panel of senior ministers, under reported government plans.
Chancellor George Osborne is expected to announce the proposal for a 'star chamber' scrutinising departmental spending cuts as he outlines his framework for the coming comprehensive spending review tomorrow.
The move to establish a new scrutiny role at the top levels of government aims to mirror the Canadian star chamber of the 1990s, which oversaw around 20% of cuts across the board.
The Institute of Fiscal Studies fears the UK's departmental average reduction could be as much as a quarter. A panel of senior ministers and civil service officials would help 'test' ministers' proposed cuts.
"A small group of ministerial heavyweights and hitters and top officials will test colleagues' budgets and their methods of service delivery and challenge them to find ways of doing more for less," the Guardian newspaper quoted a Whitehall source as saying.
The Canadian example is a chilling one for public sector workers hoping the coalition government will not cut too heavily.
Prime minister Jean Chretien reversed a fiscal deficit of over nine per cent of GDP following what became known as his 'bloodbath Budget'.
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