The Cabinet Office has claimed that Whitehall has cut millions of pounds from departmental costs, including £300 million from day-to-day IT expenditure and much more from large contracts including technology.

This follows Francis Maude’s pledge in October last year to leave “no stone unturned” in the hunt for more savings at the centre of government, delivering better for less, to address the deficit while protecting the front line and will help departments live within their tighter budgets.

The savings figures released have come from efficiency and reform measures implemented across government and have been independently audited. The savings include:

Smarter procurement

•£400 million saved by taking stronger control of our marketing spend, we have reduced spend through the Central Office of Information on relevant categories by 80 per cent.

•£360 million saved by centralising spend on common goods and services

•£800 million saved from renegotiating deals with some of the largest suppliers to government, equivalent to 6 per cent of a full year of spend with those suppliers.

Major Projects and ICT

•£150 million saved from 2010/11 budgets for government’s major projects, by halting or curtailing spending; and

•£300 million saved by applying greater scrutiny to our ICT expenditure, departments have stopped or reduced spend on low value ICT projects.