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George Osborne, the new chancellor of the exchequer, said he will announce the details of the cuts on 24 May 2010, with an emergency budget speech on 22 June. HM Treasury said the £6bn will include "doubling the current delivery plans for savings in IT spending," although it was not able to provide further details.
"The coalition has agreed that £6bn of savings to non-front line public services should be made this financial year," said Osborne. "The departments for health, defence and international development will also make savings but they will be reinvested in their front lines."
"The coalition has also agreed that, given the state of the public finances, the great majority of the £6bn of savings from other departments will be used to reduce the deficit."
The government is also reviewing all spending approvals made since 1 January, along with all pilot schemes.
Osborne said the cuts are necessary to restore confidence in the economy, and avoid sharp increases in interest rates, worsening recession and growing unemployment.
He also announced the establishment of the Office for Budget Responsibility, which will produce independent financial figures and forecasts. This will include looking at the cost of outstanding public finance initiative (PFI) deals, he said.
Health secretary Andrew Lansley said last week that the NHS may need to make more savings than the previously announced £20bn in efficiency cuts. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the NHS budget would rise above inflation in the coming years – as pledged in the Tory manifesto – to keep up with new drugs, the ageing population, and lifestyle issues such as obesity.
But he added that there was a case for making greater savings. Before the election, none of the parties disagreed with the head of the NHS, Sir David Nicholson, who asked the health service for £20bn savings by 2014. Lansley said this "implied something like 3-3.5%, probably about 3%, efficiency savings each year in the NHS... we may need to do more, because we have increases in demand".
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