Transformational agenda saves government £26bn

Watson: technology in government is saving money

The Transformational Government agenda has already achieved £26.5bn of efficiency savings in the delivery of public services and will save a further £35bn by 2011, Tom Watson minister for digital engagement said today.

Launching the Transformational Government annual report, Watson said the figures showed it was vital that the government push the agenda if it wants to deliver public services more efficiently.

"This government has achieved so much by using technology to drive the reform of public services, with increased efficiency and more freedom for people to shape services around their lives rather than government convenience," he said.

"For that reform to continue we have to learn from each other and come up with exciting and innovative ways to transform the way we deliver services in this country."

The report highlights a number of instances of the effective use of technology in the public sector.

Savings including £50m at the Department for Work and Pensions using shared services, with a total of £100m expected by the end of 2008/09 - all key to helping the country through the economic downturn.

And around 13 million motorists renewed their car tax online, 10 people a second filed their tax returns on the internet, 2.7 million driving tests were booked online and more than 15 million people visited Directgov.gov uk every month for help and guidance.

As a result of government’s focus on rationalising a number of web sites, Directgov07 now has over 15 million visits a month, and NHS Choices is now the most popular health web site in the UK.

Government chief information officer John Suffolk said significant progress had been made in government IT this year.

"This year saw the launch of our Greening Government ICT strategy, a significant rewrite and expansion of our approach to open source, open standards and re-use, and the introduction of our work to use web 2.0 tools and techniques to work with citizens to collaborate, co-create and communicate," he said.

Total expenditure on IT for 2007/08 was £13.65bn.