Written question asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Sassoon (Conservative) on Monday, 13 December 2010.

Spending Review 2010

Question: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in light of Spending Review 2010, what action they are taking to protect public sector jobs.

Answer: The United Kingdom faces the largest peacetime deficit in our history. The public sector pay bill accounts for around half of departmental resource spending, so deficit reduction will inevitably impact on the public sector workforce. However, not tackling the deficit would be the worst thing for jobs in the medium term, across the public and private sector. The Government will support employers to do everything they can to mitigate the impact of public sector job losses; by protecting jobs through pay and pensions reform; by ensuring that staff in different public sector workforces and each region will have visibility of suitable vacancies; by encouraging local employers to explore voluntary deals with staff on pay restraint or reduced hours in order to save jobs; and by actively monitoring potential workforce reductions, enabling decisions to be taken in time to mitigate localised impacts. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), in its Economic and Fiscal Outlook of 29 November, estimated a reduction in general government headcount of around 160,000 less than expected in the June Budget forecast. The bulk of this revision reflects the Government's reforms to welfare and savings made on debt interest. The full set of forecasts can be found on the OBR website: http://budgetresponsibility.independent.gov.uk/d/econ_fiscal_outlook_291110.pdf

Secondary information