Expert insight, analysis and comment on key public policy issues
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
What will politicians need to do to please public managers? The Guardian Last week Colin Talbot, professor of public policy and management at Manchester Business School, who gave evidence to the Commons’ Treasury select committee …
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
The great ignored: the big deficit and the big market, by Colin Talbot Public Finance
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
The launch of the General Election campaign yesterday was most notable for what was not said, rather than what was.
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
We all know the rationalisation: I just bought desirable item X for £50 less than the marked price so I’ve “saved” £50 I can spend on something else. Of course, the £50 isn’t real – it’s just a notional saving and my claim when I get home that “I’ve just saved fifty quid” is greeted […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
City lets George Osborne make a monkey of the voters Times Online In the case of Rayner, according to Colin Talbot of Manchester University, Britain’s foremost expert on public-sector efficiency, only half the claimed …
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
Confusion reigns in government over what the efficiency targets are for the NHS. To recap: in the Budget (para 6.14) it says that by 2013-14 the health service will be making annual efficiency savings of between £15bn and £20bn – that is roughly 15% to 20% of their entire spending. Just before a hearing of […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
Listen to my appearance on the BBC Today programme on 1st April on efficiency
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
see my latest post on Public Finance website
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
Efficiency Wars, by Colin Talbot Public Finance The first Efficiency Wars occurred in 2004, in the run-up to the last General Election the following year. Labour’s Gershon £21.5bn was pitted against the …
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
It’s official – the Budget ‘red book’ contained a glaring error about NHS efficiency savings and thus the Chancellor (obviously inadvertently) misled Parliament. The Budget stated: “Budget 2010 confirms that the NHS will deliver annual efficiency savings of £15 to 20 billion by 2013-14.” (Para 6.14, page 90 – my emphasis).