Hundreds of Whitehall ‘bank cards’ to be suspended in spending crackdown | Civil service

Hundreds of Whitehall officers can have their authorities “bank cards” suspended this week in Labour’s newest crackdown on what it regards as wasteful spending within the civil service.

Pat McFadden, the Cupboard Workplace minister, stated on Monday he would freeze nearly all the 20,000 authorities procurement playing cards (GPCs) inside days with a view to completely cancelling no less than half of them.

It’s a part of a push to scale back spending on the civil service that has already led to the abolition of organisations such because the Fee Techniques Regulator and NHS England, at a price of about 10,000 jobs.

“We should guarantee taxpayers’ cash is spent on enhancing the lives of working individuals,” McFadden stated. “It’s not proper that tons of of hundreds of thousands of kilos are spent on authorities bank cards every year, with out excessive ranges of scrutiny or problem. Solely officers for whom it’s completely important ought to have a card.”

Officers use GPCs to purchase comparatively small gadgets reminiscent of flights, workplace furnishings or drinks for official features.

They had been launched by the final Labour authorities in 1997 as a solution to cut back the forms required to run Whitehall departments. Spending on them has greater than quadrupled during the last 5 years to £676m, with Labour sources pointing to spending on gadgets reminiscent of sneakers and DJ gear as probably wasteful.

Whereas in opposition, Labour carried out an investigation into all spending on GPCs, which discovered examples of excessive spending by senior officers and ministers. In 2021, as an illustration, the then prime minister Boris Johnson used a authorities card to pay for a £4,445 dinner in New York for himself and 24 of his employees.

Later that yr Liz Truss, as overseas secretary, spent practically £1,500 on lunch and dinner throughout a go to to Indonesia in two of Jakarta’s most unique eating places.

Additionally in 2021, the Treasury below Rishi Sunak spent greater than £3,000 shopping for 13 images from the Tate to hold in its Whitehall constructing, regardless of already accessing the federal government artwork assortment.

The International Workplace is likely one of the heaviest customers of GPCs, partially as a result of officers must organise common features to entertain overseas dignitaries. However in addition to spending on gadgets reminiscent of flights and catering, officers additionally spent practically £2,500 at a shoe store referred to as Shoe Crush in Barbados.

Underneath new pointers being rolled out by McFadden, the utmost spend for hospitality might be minimize from £2,500 to £500, with any spending over £500 requiring approval from a director common.

Civil servants might be banned from utilizing playing cards to purchase issues reminiscent of journey or workplace provides, which may very well be purchased extra cheaply in bulk at a departmental or cross-departmental degree.

A lot of the 20,000 playing cards which were issued will now be frozen, with exemptions for a small variety of circumstances reminiscent of diplomatic employees in unstable areas. Cardholders will then be compelled to reapply for his or her playing cards, and if unsuccessful will lose entry to them by the top of the month.

McFadden has additionally requested departments to establish any gadgets of spending that breach authorities pointers and self-discipline the people in query.

Keir Starmer is spearheading a wider shake-up of Whitehall. In addition to cuts to quasi-non-governmental organisations, the prime minister is urging departments to make larger use of know-how reminiscent of synthetic intelligence instruments to scale back spending and streamline decision-making.

Some consultants have warned that relatively than making authorities extra environment friendly, the adjustments to how Whitehall works may make it tougher for civil servants to ship the federal government’s important priorities reminiscent of reducing NHS ready lists.