Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what comparative estimate he has made of the cost of delivering public services due to changes in productivity levels in the 2019-20 and 2023-24 financial years.

Efficiency and productivity are at the heart of the government’s approach to public spending. In June, the Chancellor announced¹ a major public sector productivity programme across all government departments, and set out that if productivity growth in the public sector increased by 0.5% a year, we would stabilise the proportion of GDP consumed by the state by closing the gap between anticipated growth and anticipated spending up to 2050.

No comparative estimate has been made of the cost of delivering public services based on historic changes in productivity.