Civil servants: change contracts and move to shared services to bear deficit, not cut jobs

Over half of UK civil servants believe that shared services and contract renegotiations are key to making government IT savings, according to new research.

The survey of 858 senior civil servants on IT spending, by IT security and data protection firm Sophos, also revealed that 46% considered a reduction in headcount to be the lowest priority when saving on IT expenditure.

However, just 15% felt that new technologies, such as Cloud Computing, were a high priority, whilst only 5% stated that government should make cuts to existing IT programmes.

Ollie Hart, head of public sector business at Sophos, said that most of the responses reflect the central government's cost-cutting strategy that was announced earlier this year.

"The key to success for government departments will be realising efficiency gains through careful streamlining and consolidation of suppliers, and not by simply replacing existing suppliers with a cheaper and potentially less effective solution."

Regarding the £650m budget for cyber security, 54% of respondents were uncertain as to what this money is to be spent on.