Oral Answers to Questions

Brian H. Donohoe Excerpts

Wednesday 25th March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Brian H. Donohoe (Central Ayrshire) (Lab)]

6. What assessment he has made of the effect on local economies of the reduction of jobs in the civil service.

[The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)]

Although the civil service is now at its smallest size since the second world war, officials have helped to deliver efficiency and reform savings of £11 billion in this financial year to January against a 2009-10 baseline. I pay tribute to the hard work and dedication of hundreds of thousands of civil servants up and down the country.

[Mr Donohoe]

Can the right hon. Gentleman explain why he shut an office in my constituency that I fought long and hard to maintain, given that people have more than met the targets they have been given on every occasion in every year? Will he personally—he has not got long to go—have a wee look at that and perhaps write to tell me why he shut that office?

[Mr Maude]

I am not sure which department the office is in, but every department must look to its efficiency and many are transforming what they do and delivering more and better for less. We have shown that that can be done, but there is much more still to do.