This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Shared services strategy
05/05/2006
A consultation on a national strategy for shared services was published today.
Minister for Finance and Public Service Reform Tom McCabe said sharing corporate support services and common business processes across the public sector could deliver significant savings and improve the quality of the services.
He forecast savings of between £250 million and £750 million a year across the whole of the Scottish public sector.
Mr McCabe said:
"The Executive is committed to spending taxpayers' money as efficiently and effectively as possible. This new shared services strategy on which we are seeking views is a central plank of our Efficient Government initiative which aims to tackle bureaucracy and duplication in the public sector.
"This document sets out our proposals for taking forward shared services across Scotland. It has been developed in partnership with the public sector and the aim is for the strategy itself to be shared across the major delivery partners and the Executive.
"Sharing general business support functions like payroll or human resource services has the potential to deliver real savings - as much as £750 million a year is possible. This is only the start of the process of working with our external partners to build the broadest range of support.
"I have been enormously encouraged by the appetite and enthusiasm for reform in my discussions with staff and leaders across the public sector. There is now a momentum behind change which will lead to the delivery of world-class services - and our strategy on shared services will play a key role."