Estimated £5.4bn Whitehall savings for the first half of this year indicates central government efficiency experts are on course to help deliver £15bn savings in 2013/14, ministers have announced. Reductions in the size of the civil service and pension reforms once again accounted for the lion's share, £2.3bn or nearly half the savings made at the financial half-point. Central government's annual wage and pension bill of £54bn outstrips the £39bn yearly expenditure on procurement. However, departments have so far achieved total £1.8bn savings through the joint purchasing of goods and services and imposing strict controls on the use of external consultants.
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