The Stage

DCMS vows to make £60m of efficiency savings

Published Wednesday 24 March 2010 at 16:44 by Alistair Smith

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has committed to making £60 million of efficiency savings as part of a wider bid across government to make £11 billion of cuts by 2012/3.

Around £10 million of the total will be found through rationalising and restructuring its arms-length bodies. This will include merging the British Film Institute and the UK Film Council, and the National Lottery Commission and the Gambling Commission. Meanwhile, £15 million will be created through “increasing collaborative procurement across all its NDPBs [non-departmental public bodies]” and £35 million will be saved through general efficiency savings, such as cuts on back office spending, reducing consultancy and reducing marketing and communications spending across its arms-length bodies.

Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Ben Bradshaw said: “The government has made it clear that operational efficiencies and smarter government savings need to be found right across the public sector. We are protecting frontline services and targeting administration costs and back office functions. This will mean our sectors can continue to deliver the fantastic range and quality of media, culture and sport that the public value.”

The reform of DCMS’s arms-length bodies will also the winding up of the Olympic Lottery Distributor in 2013 and the Olympic Delivery Authority in 2014, as well as the rationalisation of four advisory bodies - the Spoliation Advisory Panel, the Legal Deposit Advisory Panel, the Advisory Committee on National Historic Ships and the Advisory Committee on Historic Wreck Sites.

Meanwhile, the DCMS will explore the benefits of a strategic body for libraries bringing together the functions of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, the Advisory Council on Libraries and the Public Lending Right.