Officials at the Government Digital Service have launched a new web-tool to calculate the cost of UK Civil Service meetings. It’s not 1 April yet…
The free tool, labelled “Civil Service Meeting Cost Estimator“, was posted over the weekend by a director at the GDS. It allows users to select the length, attendee number, regularity, and seniority of meetings before providing their repeating costs. After feedback from fans of meetings the tool was updated to include checkbox for “mitigation of full-spectrum disasters” which changes the result to “Value delivered: millions saved.“ Value which is no doubt claimed by every meeting organiser in Whitehall…
Civil Servants clearly also drew inspiration from Guido’s UK DOGE project – meeting costs are compared at the bottom with the cost of hiring an NHS nurse. Co-conspirators can play with the tool above. If it takes this level of nudging to get pen-pushers out of their pointless meetings…
British taxpayers are funding cosy team-building away days for Cabinet ministers at a rate of £15,000 per year. Scrap ministers altogether…
The total bill since 2021/22 is £60,918.49. The UK DOGE Unit has received proprietary financial information relating to spending on ministerial away days:
There have been three Cabinet away days since Labour came to power. Ministers have to sit through Starmer telling them that they’re the “most working class Cabinet in history” before shuffling off to the canape bar…
In fairness to him that means that Starmer has spent less on taking his Cabinet out and about than previous Tory governments. Shows how much he enjoys spending time with them…
The New Media Unit in the Cabinet Office has an eye-watering £13.2 million budget to splash on influencers to propagandise the activity of the government. Turns out Starmer has deep pockets for the TikTok brigade…
Guido’s FOI Unit already established that staffing costs total a whopping £1.3 million. They currently have 19 full-time equivalent staff busy working on “marketing, media, and advertising”. So far they’ve only engaged five influencers…
For £13.2 million, you could:
Co-conspirators might have a view on which should be prioritised. UK DODGE recommends costs are cut here…
Taxpayers are on the hook for £4.65 million for climate change “research” in Pakistan, according to research by the TaxPayers’ Alliance. It never ends…
As part of an FCDO-funded scheme to “deliver accelerated family planning in Pakistan”, the cash is going towards “producing quality research and implementation science results, considering the important dimensions of the climate crisis and demographic trend”, and working with the Punjab government to build a “population roadmap”. For £4.65 million, you could:
The grant was signed off in March 2024 and runs until 2028. The taxpayer may have a view on which should be prioritised. UK DOGE recommends costs are cut here…
UK DOGE has been keeping tabs on Whitehall’s lavish splurge on social media influencers, hired to flog their least-loved policies. The DWP is no stranger to the habit…
Responding to a written question from John Hayes, the department confessed to splurging £120,023 on “influencer marketing” since Labour took power. That’s just shy of £9,000 a month. No doubt the public have been eagerly watching out for tips on securing their free luxury cars…
For £120,023, you could:
The taxpayer may have a view on which should be prioritised. UK DOGE recommends costs are cut here…
Transport for London has forked out a cool £239,843 on refurbishments to just one floor of one of its offices this year. Given staff are only expected to spend 50% of their time in the office, how often will this be used?
An FoI has revealed that the 7th floor of the TfL’s Palestra office has been redeveloped to provide staff with “a quiet space to focus, a dynamic place to problem solve or plan, a room or pod to host meetings, or simply somewhere to take a break.” This figure includes £20,807 spent on cutting 40cm off 176 desks. That’s £2.96 per cm…
For £239,843, you could:
TfL also admitted that much of the furniture was bought 2 years ago in anticipation for this refurbishment – adding another £280,000 to the bill.The taxpayer may have a view on which should be prioritised. UK DOGE recommends costs are cut here…
Sarah Pochin at Reform Scotland’s manifesto launch event: “I really wanted to come on in a Reform tartan burka, but apparently I wasn’t allowed… One day let’s do one of these events not live-streamed. We’ll do all the naughty stuff…”