Business of the House

Philip Davies Excerpts

Thursday 11th September 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

Clearly, the House is going into recess and we have no statement planned today, so there will not be an urgent statement on that, but the hon. Lady raises an important issue and I will draw it to the attention of my colleagues at the Department of Health.

[Philip Davies (Shipley) (Con)]

May we have a debate on waste and bureaucracy in local authorities? When I worked for Asda, there were eight or nine levels between the most junior role and the chief executive. I have just found out from a freedom of information request to Bradford council that it has 42 different job levels in the local authority. Does the Leader of the House agree that an awful lot of money could be saved by cutting out some of those job levels and that that would also create a much-needed career path for people, who could start at the bottom and follow a path to reach the top? That often happens in supermarkets, but it very seldom happens in local authorities.

[Mr Hague]

My hon. Friend makes a powerful point. There have been many efficiency savings in many local authorities over the past four years. Indeed, in the best-run local authorities, layers of management have been taken out and there have been huge administrative savings, but that has not been uniform across the country. The pressure on local authorities to conduct efficient administration without excessive layers of management must continue.