Paymaster General (): My Noble and Learned
friend the Attorney General, the Rt Hon. Hermer KC, has today jointly
laid this statement in the Lords:
Further to the Written Ministerial
Statement(opens in a new tab) made by my Right Honourable
Friend, the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, on the 20th
January, I am writing to update you on some of our next steps to
accelerating delivery. Working closely with the new Cabinet
Secretary, we are launching a programme of work to simplify the
state, removing unnecessary bureaucracy and speeding up the
timeline from ministerial decision to delivery for citizens.
Together with wider reforms to ‘re-wire' public services, the
Civil Service, and regulatory duties, we are creating a faster
and better model for government that will have a real impact on
people's lives.
Our state does not work in the way intended, hindering our
ability to deliver real change for British people. This is the
result of overcomplicated bureaucratic processes that we have
lived with for too long. Individual elements of the bureaucracy
were - mostly - designed for good reasons but they have now
become layers built upon layers without any proper assessment of
the overall effect. Despite the good intentions, the cumulative
result of these has been a stifling effect on government. The
need for change is urgent. We are developing a plan to free
ministers, officials, and the British public, from the
bureaucratic mire that prevents innovation and improvements to
people's lives.
Our agenda is simple: strip back the burdensome, disproportionate
processes to speed up decision making and delivery across
government. Instigating this work is essential to reach the
desire for radical reform across government. It directly supports
the Prime Minister's ambition to ‘re-wire the state' to make it
work for working people.
Immediate first steps include aiming to:
-
End the introduction of unnecessary reporting and
consultation requirements through introducing a higher bar to
their inclusion in legislation.
-
Use AI to identify existing disproportionate reporting and
consultation duties that are slowing down delivery.
-
Take action on the use of Equalities Impact Assessments to
ensure they are proportionate and actually improve policy and
outcomes
-
Replace Environmental Impact Assessments with Environmental
Outcomes Reports as part of a significant step in reducing
bureaucracy around new infrastructure projects.
-
Simplify and improve government controls - a reformed
controls framework goes live from the start of the 2026-27
Financial Year, reducing bureaucracy in projects and
programmes, empowering those closest to delivery.
-
Continue to deliver the Government's commitments on ALB
reform, ensuring that decisions are taken at the right level.
All departments have been asked to set out their plans to
reform their ALB landscape, with a view to confirming
mergers, closures and repatriations ahead of the next
Spending Review.
Working alongside the new Cabinet Secretary, Dame DCB, to deliver the Prime
Minister's priorities, Ministers will also implement a number of
changes to:
-
Continue exploring new ways to reduce administrative burdens
and speed up government decision making, building on existing
progress to digitise processes and improve efficiency.
-
Introduce a new accountability framework, working with
Permanent Secretaries, to set clear expectations and
measurable targets to drive delivery of the Prime Minister's
priorities, and innovation within their departments, and hold
people to account for doing so.
This is far from the limit of the government's ambition. We are
scoping the significant longer-term opportunities for simplifying
government processes, to “ungum” the system and ultimately drive
growth and deliver faster outcomes for people. Reforming these
fundamentals will increase our capacity to get on with the
business of government: delivering for the British public.
