Examination of Witnesses (Question Numbers
140-141)
The Rt Hon Vince Cable MP,
Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, and The
Rt Hon David Willetts MP, Minister of State for Universities
and Science, Department of Business, Innovation and Skills
26 October 2010
Q140 Chair: Thank
you for attending. Just to finish off, obviously your Department
is being presented with significant cuts. During the course of
the questions, you have highlighted a significant number of unknowns.
In fact, I have listed them and I think there are 10; I will
not go through them all. In your words, these unknowns have to
deliver 90% of your Department's savings. Now, that makes me
feel slightly uncomfortable, because it would appear that your
savings, if they are based on a whole lot of unknowns, aren't
very reliable. In my days as finance chair of a major metropolitan
authority, pre1997, and having to budget for an annual round
of cuts, we would basically do profiling based on a certain percentage
cut. I cannot believe that your Department did not go through
a similar sort of exercise. Did you? If you did, can you share
the information with us?
Vince Cable: Well
we went through over the last few weeks, indeed months, with the
Treasury some very, very detailed discussions about how these
major savings can be achieved. But this is a big, complex Department;
we just talked, for example, about one microcosm, which is apprenticeships,
and how that will eventually be worked through. When we say there
are unknowns, there is a lot of detail that still has to be worked
through. We are very happy to share that with you, but we are
confident that we can deliver the savings that we have been asked
to produce and we can do it in a way that still enables this Department
to contribute very, very substantially to economic growth, which
is what we are about.
Q141 Chair: I
think KPMG described the CSR growth assumptions as "heroic".
If I submitted the list of unknowns to you and you could provide
us with written evidence, that would be very helpful indeed.
Vince Cable: Well,
I do not know about the word "heroic". The Office for
Budget Responsibility is the independent body that has just been
established to produce forecasts that the Government can work
with. This is independent of Government and their forecasts are
of increasing rates of growth over the spending review period
and that is the framework within which we are operating.
Chair: We will
await their next report with great interest. In the meantime,
if you could give detailed answers to the unknowns that you have
highlighted today, we would be very grateful. On behalf of everybody
on the Committee, can I thank you for coming in and undergoing
a pretty rigorous examination. Thanks very much.
Vince Cable: Thank
you.
David Willetts:
It's a pleasure.
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