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A detailed review to date of how cuts could be made in six of the main Government departments has been released by think tank Policy Exchange, ahead of the Spending Review.

The report identifies cuts across the Departments for Education, Business, Innovation and Skills, Communities and Local Government, Energy and Climate Change, the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office.

In the first scenario, the report lays out cuts of 10% in Education, and 25% in the other departments. The report found that cuts on this lower scale can be achieved almost entirely by deploying a combination of cuts already announced, those that would be intrinsically desirable to make anyway, and other savings Policy Exchange regards as “plausible”. Apart from in the Ministry of Justice, there is no need to resort to cuts that are unpalatable to achieve the aggregate spending reductions required on the lower scenario.

In contrast, in the second scenario, to achieve the higher cuts scenario of 20% in education and 40% in other departments, many relatively unpalatable options would have to be implemented, including particularly blunt cuts in certain areas.

See more at http://www.policyexchange.org.uk//assets/How_to_save_25__PR.pdf