Recommendation 2

Past experience shows that attempts to improve efficiency can inadvertently reduce the quality of services or increase costs elsewhere – what this committee has called cost shunting. Efficiency plans without a clear idea of the implications for service users have led to problems in the past. For example, when the Ministry of Justice attempted to reduce demand for legal aid, there was a large increase in litigants in person which created extra costs elsewhere in the justice system. The collection of data around user behaviour is important when planning, implementing and running efficiency programmes in order to avoid future remedial changes with additional costs attached. However, as the Committee highlighted in its 2019 report Challenges in using data across government, government has not treated data as a valuable asset. Recommendation: HM Treasury should ensure that, in their efficiency plans, departments consider what the potential impact might be on service users, and that data around user behaviour and sentiment is tracked as programmes are implemented.