Procurement centralisation and renegotiating large contracts have saved £3.8bn compared to spending in 2009-10, with one department saving £24m by renegotiating a contract with just one supplier.
Chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander, who jointly chairs the Efficiency & Reform Board which oversees the ERG, said: “This is a good result and a testament to the hard work being done by departments into making government as lean as possible.”
He added, however, that: “There is a great deal more to do before government is as efficient as it needs to be”.
The £10bn savings are nearly twice those made in the 2011-12 financial year, and exceed the government’s target of £8bn savings in 2012-13.
After procurement reforms, the second largest chunk of savings came from reducing the size of the civil service and reforming public sector pensions: these contributed £3.4bn to the total.
Government also saved £1.7bn by reviewing and reshaping large projects, including reducing Crossrail project costs by £145m, and £1.1bn by improving online services and rationalising government’s property estate.
These figures have been gathered from departmental performance data, and checked by independent auditors, but have not yet been examined by the National Audit Office.