- Four new projects have been awarded funding to help test and
evaluate new approaches within government
- Up to £1 billion to potentially be saved through
modernisation and automation of services
- Other projects include using mobile network data to support
electric vehicle uptake
- Fund forms part of a wider push from ministers to drive
efficiencies in new ways
New projects within government which could save the taxpayer up
to £1 billion have been launched by the Cabinet Office.
The four new projects announced today are part of the Evaluation
Task Force’s Accelerator Fund, which provides money to
departments to improve evaluation of policy within government.
The Fund is the latest demonstration of the government’s drive to
ramp up the use of data to provide financial and efficiency
savings to ensure the best value of public money from new
policies or interventions.
One project, which will drive forward improvements in government
services, could see £1 billion of taxpayer’s money saved through
shifting services to digital channels, reducing paper use and
automating processes. This includes through the use of phone-bots
and automated processes to cut out unnecessary processes.
More than £1.2 million of funding has been awarded to teams
tackling issues such as cutting costs through digital
transformation and mapping the use of electric vehicles.
Minister for the Cabinet Office said:
This is a government with innovation at its core and it’s vital
that we channel that in the right way, ensuring decisions made by
the government are data-driven.
This funding will help teams drive innovation across government,
creating the tools and data departments need to become more
efficient and drive value for money. I’m looking forward to
seeing the positive impact this will have on public services.
The four projects awarded a total of £1,285,000 via the
Evaluation Accelerator Fund will test and develop new data-driven
approaches to policy-making and evaluation. It builds on £12.2
million awarded across 16 projects in the first round of funding
last year.
Teams across Whitehall and the What Works Network were invited to
place bids for ideas that would test and evaluate the impact of
new policies or approaches to delivering public services.
The bids needed to demonstrate how they would provide robust
evidence of financial or efficiency savings, tying in with the
wider push within the government to ensure taxpayers are
receiving the best possible value for their money.
One successful bid which has received £500,000 from the
Accelerator Fund will see the Cabinet Office evaluate how service
improvements, such as reducing the use of paper and demand on
customer service teams, can help unlock savings across
government. Improvements may include the replacement of physical
signatures with e-signatures, or the use of electronic
notifications, for example SMS and social media, instead of
paper.
Around £450,000 also went towards work being undertaken by the
Department for Transport exploring how mobile network operator
(MNO) data can be used to support initiatives targeting electric
vehicle uptake and usage. It is hoped that mobile data, including
geographical spread, charging locations and distances travelled,
can be used to help locate charging infrastructure where it’s
needed most, as well as providing a more comprehensive evaluation
of electric vehicle usage across the country.
Last year a project led by the College of Policing was awarded
£1.7 million to help test new ways at preventing violence against
women and girls. The funding is now being used to further
evaluate the use of Rapid Video Response (RVR) for domestic
abuse, having previously been trialled by Kent Police. Findings
from the Kent trial showed that it had increased victim
satisfaction, with the average wait time to speak to an officer
reduced to three minutes. Financial efficiencies, based upon the
findings of the initial trial, were calculated to be between
£119,000 - £190,000 per annum. Replication of RVR in other forces
and testing of different uses of the same technology will
identify the potential of this approach across the country.
Another project led by the Ministry of Justice and HM Prison and
Probation Service was awarded over £933,000 to tackle drug misuse
in prisons by monitoring wastewater. Following successful
fieldwork, the trial is due to launch later this year.
To find further information on the successful projects, please
refer to the Evaluation Accelerator
Fund page on GOV.UK.
