Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the HM Treasury press release, Chancellor announces £4.5 billion of measures to bring down debt, published on 4 June 2015, what efficiency savings her Department plans to make to achieve reductions of £30 million in its budget.

The Home Office has already saved the taxpayer £1.5 billion, 23% in real-terms, as part of the 2010 Spending Review, with additional savings made as part of subsequent Autumn Statement and Budget measures.

This has been achieved whilst reducing crime by more than a quarter, clamping down on sham marriages, removing more than 24,000 foreign criminals, training more than 160,000 frontline workers in our work to counter radicalisation, excluding more preachers of hate than any other government, and taking down on average 1,000 items of online terrorist-related material per week.

For 2015-16 the Home Office has developed plans to reduce spend by a further £0.5 billion, 6.1% in real terms. The additional £30 million will be achieved as part of the department’s measures to drive further productivity improvements, value from commercial suppliers and efficiency in the running costs of the department. The £30 million of in-year savings will not come from the core police grant, nor from the department’s counter-terrorism funding for the police.

The Government is getting on with the job of repairing the public finances, and to run a surplus in this Parliament. This will create the best conditions for sustainable growth.