Opposition parties target DTI for bureaucracy busting cuts

An end to the Labour government could also spell the end of the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI), after the Opposition parties targeted the department for cuts in a bid to reduce Whitehall bureaucracy.

The Tories announced yesterday that they would slash staff numbers at the DTI by 80% - removing 80% of its workforce, while the Lib Dems reiterated their commitment to simply abolish it altogether.

Yesterday, Shadow Chancellor Oliver Letwin unveiled plans to "cut the department down to size" by removing 4,000 of the 5,000 jobs at the department's headquarters. The Tories say that the DTI in its current form unnecessarily costs the British taxpayer the equivalent of building one Millennium Dome every year – or around £750 million a year.

As well as saving £186.5 million by removing 3,395 civil servants from the DTI headquarters, the Tory-backed review recommends restructuring reforms will could save more than £500 million. The Tories would also adopt a 'keep or kill' approach to quangos.

Mr Letwin claimed that Britain has slipped from fourth to 15th in the international competitiveness league, while clocking up its biggest trade deficit since the 17th century.

"The DTI is all too typical of the bloated bureaucracy Labour has created. Instead of helping business to flourish, it all too often stifles free enterprise. These proposals will not only streamline the DTI, but will produce substantial savings for the taxpayer," he said.

Lib Dem Trade and Industry spokesman, Malcolm Bruce, said that it had missed the point – the greatest cost saving could be made scrapping DTI altogether.

"The Tories’ hot air hardly sucks the wind out of our 'bloated bureaucracy'. The biggest piece of deregulation that can be done to help business is to cut government interference and scrap the DTI altogether," he said.

"Cutting the number of civil servants while leaving the basic apparatus of the DTI in place will do nothing to address the huge costs of government interference to taxpayers and businesses. In fact, it may make the department even more inefficient."

The Lib Dems said that the functions of the DTI can either be abolished or transferred to other departments, ending duplication of work within government.

"The Tories are sticking plasters on a problem that can’t be fixed. By abolishing the DTI we would have an opportunity to revolutionise the way Government protects consumers and promotes business," he added.

(gmcg)