Latest news with #Whitehall
Daily Mail
17 hours ago
- General
- Daily Mail
Neigh-ver letting go! King's Guard horse bites tourist's arm after she stands too close
Watch the moment a King's Guard horse bites a tourist after she stood too close to it. The animal was filmed chomping down on the woman's arm while she posed for a picture in Whitehall, London. Click above to watch the full video.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
UK will slump to 1% growth next year as Trump tariffs bite, says OECD
The UK's economic growth will be slower than expected this year and next as the damage caused by Donald Trump's tariff war hits trade and investment, according to a gloomy forecast by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The international body downgraded its expectations for this year and next from a forecast made in March, pushing down UK growth from 1.4% to 1.3% in 2025 and from 1.2% to 1% next year. Constraints on Whitehall spending and higher than expected inflation also played a part in a downgrade, the OECD said. Almost all countries, including the UK, suffered downgrades in the latest growth forecasts by the Paris-based organisation, which said it was mostly responding to the uncertainty created by US tariffs on the outlook for the global economy. The OECD had forecast global growth would ease from 3.3% in 2024 to 3.1% in 2025 and 3% next year, but now expects a 'modest' 2.9% growth this year and next. The US, Mexican and Canadian economies are likely to be the worst affected by the tariff battles, the OECD said. A forecast for the US in March expected growth to reach 2.2% this year and 1.6% in 2026, but these estimates were cut to 1.6% and 1.5% respectively in the latest outlook. The OECD's judgment is likely to disappoint the UK chancellor, Rachel Reeves, who faces tough questions next week about her record when she announces the government's priorities for the next three years in a much-anticipated spending review. Government spending is constrained by the rising cost of health, pensions and defence, while the economy remains stagnant, limiting the rise in tax receipts. The chancellor will base her plans on forecasts by the Office for Budget Responsibility, which said in March – several weeks before Trump began to impose import tariffs – that the UK economy would grow by just 1% this year, but recover strongly to hit 1.9% next year. Álvaro Pereira, the OECD chief economist, said he was cautious about the UK's ability to withstand the uncertainty created by a global tariff war, which the OBR forecast was unable to take into account. 'We hope we have seen the worst of the tariffs and there will be more trade agreements, bringing some certainty to international trade. Our top priority must be to keep markets open for trade,' he added. Pereira said his forecasts were based on the main US tariffs remaining in place over at least the next two years – a 25% tariff on imports of steel, aluminium and cars and a 10% blanket tariff on all goods. 'In the past few months, we have seen a significant increase in trade barriers as well as in economic and trade policy uncertainty. This sharp rise in uncertainty has negatively impacted business and consumer confidence and is set to hold back trade and investment,' he said. 'Weakened economic prospects will be felt around the world, with almost no exception. Lower growth and less trade will hit incomes and slow job growth,' he added. Inflation was likely to remain 'sticky' in the UK over the next year, restricting the pace of interest rate cuts by the Bank of England, despite a slowing economy. 'Though we are still forecasting that inflation will come down to central bank targets by 2026 in most countries, it will now take longer to reach those targets. In the countries more affected by tariffs, inflation might even rise first before coming down,' he said. The OECD makes forecasts for all its 38 members before annual meetings in Paris this week. Its report on the UK found that, after a strong first three months of the year – during which gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 0.7% – 'momentum is weakening, with business sentiment rapidly deteriorating', before adding that 'consumer confidence remains depressed and has declined since the second half of 2024, while retail sales volumes have been volatile'. It urged the UK government to restrict day-to-day spending to provide the financial room to maintain higher levels of public investment. However, the government's limited budget headroom meant only small shocks could blow spending plans off course and force the Treasury to make further cuts. Echoing the International Monetary Fund's view on Reeves's fiscal rules last week, the OECD said a 'very thin fiscal buffer' exposed the economy to 'significant downside risk'. 'Efforts to rebuild buffers should be stepped up in the face of strongly constrained budgetary policy and substantial downward risks to growth,' the OECD said. 'Currently very thin fiscal buffers could be insufficient to provide adequate support without breaching the fiscal rules in the event of renewed adverse shocks.' Reeves said in response to the report that the government's 'landmark trade deals' with the EU, US and India would help to cut costs for businesses, protect jobs and attract investment to the UK.
Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Times
AI could free 30,000 civil servants from routine admin, study finds
Nearly 30,000 civil servants could be freed from carrying out routine admin every year if AI is rolled out across Whitehall, a government study has suggested. More than 20,000 civil servants across Whitehall took part in a three-month trial to use generative AI for help with tasks such as drafting documents, summarising meetings, and handling emails. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said this saved the equivalent of giving 1,130 full-time workers out of the 20,000 a full year back every year. Extrapolated across the whole civil service workforce of 514,395 people, the trial suggests 29,063 could be freed up for other work using AI. It comes as a study from the Alan Turing Institute found AI could support up to 41 per cent of tasks across the public sector. The artificial intelligence institute found that teachers spend nearly 100 minutes a day on lesson planning but up to 75 per cent of this could be supported by AI, while civil servants spend about 30 minutes daily on emails, where it is believed AI could cut this effort by more than 70 per cent. Civil servants in the government trial used AI to cut through jargon and streamline consultations, while work coaches utilised it to speed up support for jobseekers. They used tools such as Microsoft 365 Copilot to assist with drafting documents, summarising lengthy emails, updating records, and preparing reports. Peter Kyle, the technology secretary, will highlight the results alongside Sir Tony Blair at the SXSW London festival on Monday. The two will discuss reimagining government and public service delivery in the age of AI. Last month, a separate government trial found AI is more impartial than civil servants in analysing responses to new policies and consultations. A new AI tool to sort responses to public consultations found that about 75,000 days of work could be saved, while civil servants themselves said it removed opportunities for them to 'project their own preconceived ideas' into processes and 'takes away the bias and makes it more consistent'. • Consult, the new tool that will be used across government, is part of Humphrey — a bundle of AI tools being used across Whitehall and named after Sir Humphrey Appleby, the fictional permanent secretary in Yes Minister. The tool categorises responses under broad headings and assigns them based on whether they agree or disagree with proposals or if they are unclear. At present this is done manually by civil servants who comb through about 500 consultations a year, with responses in the thousands. The tool will also help with the increasing number of template responses to consultations organised by campaign groups. However officials also said there was a rise in the number of campaigning organisations that encouraged people to use AI to write consultation responses, which could lead to a situation where AI is analysing responses written using trial of Consult was used to analyse responses to a Scottish government consultation on cosmetic procedures. Testers found that the majority of the time the AI agreed with what a human reviewer would have said. Officials who worked with Consult on the test said they were 'pleasantly surprised' that AI analysis provided a 'useful starting point' in its initial analysis, with others noting that it ultimately 'saved [them] a heck of a lot of time' and allowed them to 'get to the analysis and draw out what's needed next'. Kyle said: 'These findings show that AI isn't just a future promise — it's a present reality. Whether it's helping draft documents, preparing lesson plans or cutting down on routine admin, AI tools are saving civil servants time every day. That means we can focus more on delivering faster, more personalised support where it really counts.'
BBC News
4 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Spending Review: Tough choices unavoidable, says IFS
Tough choices are "unavoidable" as the government finalises spending plans for areas ranging from the NHS and defence, to schools and the criminal justice system, a think tank has Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the level of spending on health would dictate whether cuts were made to so-called unprotected areas – those outside of the NHS, defence and added while funding increased sharply in 2024 for transport, net zero, hospitals, schools and prisons, it would no longer increase year on year, given the government's government said the Spending Review on 11 June would "scrutinise every single pound the government spends". The review will outline day-to-day departmental budgets over the next three years and investment budgets over the next insiders have told the BBC they expect it will be "ugly", and that ministers have been fighting over winning small amounts of cash for their respective are concerns with the government that plans, such as increasing police numbers in a bid to halve violence against women and girls, might not be allocated enough cash. There are also discussions over continued funding for capping bus Rachel Reeves's stance on ruling out borrowing more money and not raising taxes again has led to strong speculation spending cuts will be made. The IFS said the government had "front-loaded" its spending over the course of the parliament term in the first couple of years, which meant spending would slow down. "The consequences of this decision must be confronted," the IFS it comes to daily spending on public services, the think tank suggested a "huge amount depends on the generosity" of cash handed to the NHS - which accounts for 39% of day-to-day departmental spending - as well as spending is planned to be £202bn in 2025-2026, the IFS said, which could pull funding from other areas as the government prioritises reducing patient waiting times and improving access to dental care."Increasing health funding at anything like the historical average rate would mean imposing real-terms cuts on other 'unprotected' departments," the think tank said this would prove challenging, especially given the government's ambitions to improve the criminal justice system and to deal with prison overcrowding. 'More defence spending means cuts elsewhere' The IFS added the level of health spending was "in some sense, the central trade-off for the Spending Review" and one that would only become starker if defence spending was increased further or faster than currently Boileau, a research economist at IFS, said the Treasury faced "some unavoidably tough choices"."After turning on the spending taps last autumn, the flow of additional funding is now set to slow to more of a trickle," she government has committed to increasing spending on the army and its estates, and announced it would cut the foreign aid budget to increase military spending to 2.5% of national income by 2027."Giving more to defence means, all else equal, bigger cuts to something else," the IFS October, Chancellor Reeves changed a self-imposed debt rule, freeing up billions for her to spend on long-term projects such as roads and energy infrastructure, but the IFS warned "not everything can be a priority for further increases". It said questions remained about "whether the trade-offs will be confronted rather than wished away".To continue to improve public services under tight restraints, the IFS suggested the government could improve productivity, thereby allowing it to deliver the same, or better services within lower that would be a challenge. The ONS reported in 2024 that productivity in public services is currently below pre-Covid pandemic levels.A government spokesperson said it was "delivering what matters for working people – cutting hospital waiting lists, getting control of our borders and tackling the cost of living".The IFS warned choosing to cut public sector pay has led to strikes in the recent past, so keeping pay flat would "pose serious challenges".It concluded that cuts to public services would not be impossible to make, but would be challenging and require "ruthless prioritisation".
Telegraph
6 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Civil Service spends £27m on diversity in a year
Whitehall spent £27 million on diversity in a single year, the first ever audit of bureaucracy 'wokery' has revealed. An internal report from the Cabinet Office, commissioned by the last Conservative government, reveals there are 380 ' equality, diversity and inclusion ' (EDI) staff in the Civil Service. They are paid £53,000 a year on average and their salaries cost taxpayers £20 million overall. EDI staff in departments have been criticised for promoting contested theories such as that there is a spectrum of genders and that people can be guilty of microaggressions towards other people based on their race, gender or sexuality. Gender-critical feminists have also claimed it can make them reluctant to speak openly about their views but proponents claim they ensure minority communities are treated fairly. The cost of activities, including learning and development sessions, added up to £4.9 million in departments and £700,000 cross-government. Another £800,000 was spent on 'external benchmarking' and membership of EDI organisations such as the controversial LGBT charity Stonewall. And £700,000 went towards diversity and inclusion staff networks. This comes to a total of £27.1 million in just one year. This amount would pay for the winter fuel payments of 135,000 pensioners, or would fund the employment of more than 1,000 nurses. The report found that the equivalent of 350 people within departments worked full time in EDI roles, along with 30 in cross-governmental functions. It also said there are 570 'diversity staff networks' in government departments. These networks, with 2,965 committee members, represent different minority groups, and some Civil Service members spend half their weeks running them. The report came as it emerged the Government is planning to get rid of around 50,000 Civil Service posts – one in 10 – to get the size of Whitehall down to pre-Brexit levels. On Thursday, one Right-leaning think tank called on Labour to go further and sack a half of human resources staff and two in three communications roles to help save £5 billion a year. Meanwhile, Reform UK has made slashing diversity and inclusion roles a key part of its policy platform. The document, Civil Service EDI Expenditure Review Data, appeared on the Cabinet Office website on Thursday afternoon. A total of 19 ministerial departments and 45 arm's-length bodies responded to the government review. The research also looked at how much was spent on EDI in the big five departments – Department for Work and Pensions, Home Office, HM Revenue and Customs, Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Justice. In 2023-24, the total spent in these five departments was £12.8 million. A government spokesman said the £27 million equated to 0.006 per cent of Civil Service spend. 'This spending took place under the previous government,' she said. 'We are absolutely focused on ensuring every pound spent of taxpayer money delivers for the public – ending hospital backlogs, putting police back on the beat and securing our borders.' Meanwhile, the Policy Exchange think tank called on the Government to go further and reduce the Civil Service by 80,000. Within this, the report proposes halving the size of the senior Civil Service, the policy profession and the HR profession and a 70 per cent reduction in communications staff. Commenting on the report, a former Treasury second permanent secretary said: 'Whether you believe in a big or a small state, we should all want one that is efficient and effective. 'An over-resourced administrative machine inevitably generates ever more process for itself and slows itself down.'
