To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 29 October 2024 to Question 10442 on Government departments: communication and public consultation, what non-essential spending in each Department has been stopped to deliver the £50 million of savings in (a) 2024-24 and (b) 2025-26.
Answered on
10 January 2025
To identify savings in Communications spending for 2024-25 and 2025-26, the UK Government conducted a comprehensive review of communications campaigns through the Spending Review. This review looked at the strategic logic, join-up, role for communications and value for money of each campaign. This led to 39 campaigns being cancelled, 46 continuing with reduced budgets and 46 aiming to reduce their expenditure by 25%.
As a result, Autumn Budget 2024 confirmed an £85 million saving from reducing unnecessary communications spend in 2024-25 and up to £96m in 2025-26 – exceeding the £50 million target set out in the Chancellor’s July 2024 Inheritance speech.