Thousands of Whitehall officials will suspend this week on what they consider the government's “credit cards” as wasteful spending on civil servants, in the latest crackdown on workers.
Cabinet Secretary Pat McFadden said on Monday that he would freeze almost all of the 20,000 Government Procurement Cards (GPCs) within a few days to cancel at least half of them permanently.
This is part of a push to reduce spending on civil servants, which have already led to the abolition of payment systems regulators and organizations such as the NHS England, at the cost of employment of around 10,000 people.
“We must ensure that taxpayer money is spent on improving the lives of our workers,” McFadden said. “It's not right that hundreds of millions of pounds are spent on government credit cards each year without high levels of scrutiny or challenge. Only essential staff members must have their cards.”
Authorities use GPCs to purchase relatively small items such as flights, office furniture, drinks, etc. for official functions.
They were introduced in 1997 by the last Labour Government as a way to reduce the bureaucracy needed to run the Whitehall sector. It points out that spending on them has more than four times more than £676 million over the past five years, with labor sources potentially being wasted on items such as shoes and DJ equipment.
While opposed, Labour conducted an investigation into all spending on the GPC, which found examples of high spending by senior officials and ministers. In 2021, for example, then Prime Minister Boris Johnson used his government card to pay a £4,445 dinner in New York for himself and his 24 staff.
Later that year, Liz Truss, as Foreign Secretary, spent nearly £1,500 for lunch and dinner while visiting Indonesia at two of Jakarta's most upscale restaurants.
Also, in 2021, the Treasury Department under Rishi Snack spent more than £3,000 buying 13 photos from Tate to hang it in a Whitehall building, despite already having access to the government's art collection.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is one of the heaviest users of GPCS. This is because authorities must organize regular functions to entertain foreign officials. But in addition to spending on items such as flights and catering, authorities have also spent nearly £2,500 in a shoe store called the Shoe Crash in Barbados.
Under the new guidelines rolled out by McFadden, maximum hospitality spending will be reduced from £2,500 to £500, with spending over £500 requiring approval from the Director-General.
Civil servants are prohibited from using cards to purchase travel, office supplies, etc., and can be purchased at departmental or departmental levels at a cheaper price.
Most of the 20,000 cards issued will be frozen, exempt from a small number of cases, such as diplomatic staff, in unstable places. The cardholder will then be forced to reapply for the card, and if it fails, they will lose access by the end of the month.
McFadden also asked the department to identify spending items that violate government guidelines and to discipline the individual in question.
Keir Starmer is at the forefront of Whitehall's wider shakeup. In addition to cutting semi-non-governmental organizations, the Prime Minister is urging the department to utilize more technologies such as artificial intelligence tools to reduce spending and streamline decision-making.
Rather than making the government more efficient, some experts warn that changes in Whitehall's mechanism could make it difficult for civil servants to provide key government priorities, such as reducing NHS wait lists.
