Departmental Business Plans

Julian Smith Excerpts

Monday 8th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Letwin]

The first thing that I should say is that the Government have not made any such announcement; the Government accept the Office for Budget Responsibility’s forecast about the net effect on public sector employment. That does not mean anything like that number of current employees losing their jobs—nothing of the kind. Secondly, of course, had this initiative been introduced now by a Labour Government —to judge by what the right hon. Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Mr Byrne) said it might have been, and that is a delightful prospect—it would have been accompanied by various things. Large numbers of consultants would have been hired to set up complicated websites and there would have been large reviews, huge expenditure and so on—and probably great expenditure on advertising. The total that we have spent on this exercise to date is zero. We have not employed a single consultant, we are constructing the websites ourselves and we are not advertising, because we are a Government and not a magazine.

[Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

Let me invoke the spirit of “Dragons’ Den” and ask my right hon. Friend which Department has done the best business plan?

[Mr Letwin]

I value far too highly my relationships with my colleagues to give any answer to my hon. Friend. All the business plans are excellent.