Government Delivery: Simplifying Processes and Reducing Bureaucracy

Thursday 26th March 2026 Written Statements

[The Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office (Nick Thomas-Symonds)]

My noble and learned Friend the Attorney General, the right hon. Lord Hermer KC, has today jointly laid this statement in the House of Lords:

Further to the written ministerial statement made by my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister on 20 January, which can be found at https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2026-01-20/hcws1260 I am writing to provide an update on some of our next steps to accelerate delivery. Working closely with the new Cabinet Secretary, we are launching a programme of work to simplify the state, removing unnecessary bureaucracy and speeding up the timeline from ministerial decision to delivery for citizens. Together with wider reforms to “re-wire” public services, the civil service and regulatory duties, we are creating a faster and better model for government that will have a real impact on people’s lives.

Our state does not work in the way intended, hindering our ability to deliver real change for British people. This is the result of overcomplicated bureaucratic processes that we have lived with for too long. Individual elements of the bureaucracy were, mostly, designed for good reasons, but they have now become layers built upon layers without any proper assessment of the overall effect. Despite the good intentions, the cumulative result has been a stifling effect on Government. The need for change is urgent. We are developing a plan to free Ministers, officials and the British public from the bureaucratic mire that prevents innovation and improvements to people’s lives.

Our agenda is simple: strip back the burdensome, disproportionate processes to speed up decision making and delivery across Government. Instigating this work is essential to reach the desire for radical reform across Government. It directly supports the Prime Minister’s ambition to “re-wire the state” to make it work for working people.

Immediate first steps include aiming to:

End the introduction of unnecessary reporting and consultation requirements through introducing a higher bar to their inclusion in legislation.

Use AI to identify existing disproportionate reporting and consultation duties that are slowing down delivery.

Take action on the use of equalities impact assessments to ensure they are proportionate and actually improve policy and outcomes.

Replace environmental impact assessments with environmental outcomes reports as part of a significant step in reducing bureaucracy around new infrastructure projects.

Simplify and improve Government controls—a reformed controls framework goes live from the start of the 2026-27 financial year, reducing bureaucracy in projects and programmes, empowering those closest to delivery.

Continue to deliver the Government’s commitments on arm’s length body reform, ensuring that decisions are taken at the right level. All Departments have been asked to set out their plans to reform their ALB landscape, with a view to confirming mergers, closures and repatriations ahead of the next spending review.

Working alongside the new Cabinet Secretary, Dame Antonia Romeo DCB, to deliver the Prime Minister’s priorities, Ministers will also implement a number of changes to:

Continue exploring new ways to reduce administrative burdens and speed up Government decision making, building on existing progress to digitise processes and improve efficiency.

Introduce a new accountability framework, working with permanent secretaries, to set clear expectations and measurable targets to drive delivery of the Prime Minister’s priorities, and innovation within their Departments, and hold people to account for doing so.

This is far from the limit of the Government’s ambition. We are scoping the significant longer-term opportunities for simplifying Government processes, to “ungum” the system and ultimately drive growth and deliver faster outcomes for people. Reforming these fundamentals will increase our capacity to get on with the business of government: delivering for the British public.

[HCWS1467]