Innovating to Eliminate Waste in the Public Sector

Innovate to eliminate waste

If you’ve ever worked in the civil service or closely alongside it, you’ve probably encountered bureaucracy and inefficiencies. There’s a reason for it—government departments are naturally risk-averse. When things go wrong, the consequences can be severe, ranging from high-profile resignations to press scrutiny, political fallout, and even life-and-death situations, depending on the service.

Add to that the responsibility of managing taxpayer money, and it’s no surprise that civil servants tread carefully. They’ve also faced intense criticism in recent years, with rhetoric like Suella Braverman’s comments on an “entrenched complacency culture” and Jacob Rees-Mogg’s claim that striking civil servants “would not be noticed.”

The current government is taking a particularly aggressive stance on tackling waste. The language ministers use paints a stark picture: Rachel Reeves has spoken of a “black hole” in public finances and promised an “iron fist” approach to waste, while Keir Starmer has called for an end to a “flabby state” and a “tepid bath of decline.”

This has led to the media nicknaming the exercise ‘Project Chainsaw’ in reference to Elon Musk’s Chainsaw stunt, a name strongly rejected by Downing Street. Beyond the political soundbites, though, civil servants themselves will tell you that public services are struggling and reform is urgently needed. 

The scale of the challenge 

This government has made it clear: things must change. They’re calling for an end to waste, a drive for efficiency, and a new era of investment in AI and digital solutions. And they’re backing it up with serious targets—5% efficiency savings, a zero-based review of public spending, and plans to double the number of civil servants in digital and data roles. Funding is being made available to make this work. 

• Innovation Fund – A £100 million fund will support “test and learn” teams to trial new solutions, with early projects launching in Manchester, Sheffield, Essex, and Liverpool.

• The recent £3.25 billion Transformation Fund further supports public sector reform, with allocations for fostering, AI deployment, and civil service exit schemes.
• The UK government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan, which includes a commitment of £14 billion to support various AI initiatives. This investment is projected to create approximately 13,250 jobs and aims to position the UK as a global leader in artificial intelligence.

While this investment is welcome, it’s clear that funding alone won’t solve the problem. A culture shift is needed to truly drive efficiency and innovation.

The challenge is huge. But so is the opportunity.

At Hitachi Solutions, we don’t see this as a move to cut civil servants out of the picture—we see it as a way to empower and enable them. Our role is to help make these reforms work—not just in theory, but in the reality of day-to-day government operations. 

 

Upskilling civil servants to drive AI & digital adoption 

Government is making a bold bet on AI. Sir Keir Starmer has called it “the defining opportunity of our generation,” and ministers have committed to embedding AI experts in departments to streamline processes. But the success of these initiatives depends on more than just investment—it requires the right skills in the right places.

We know that throwing new technology at a problem isn’t enough. That’s why we work alongside civil servants, training teams in practical AI and digital skills, being human-centric by default so they don’t just rely on external experts—they become the experts themselves. 

At the Global Government Forum’s Innovation 2025 conference, Sarah Munby highlighted that while the UK government wants to have 10% of its workforce in digital roles, only a fifth of digital spend currently goes on permanent staff. The rest? Contractors, consultants, and managed services providers like us. That’s not sustainable. 

While that 10% figure might be great news for the Government Digital Service and digital professions, it has the potential to leave 90% of the workforce behind. Without widespread digital enablement, inefficiencies will persist, and the gap between those who can innovate and those who cannot will widen. 

At Hitachi Solutions, we’re uniquely positioned to help bridge this divide. Our deep Microsoft expertise, combined with our user-centred design approach, learning and training teams, and change management specialists, ensures that innovation is human-centric by default. We don’t just implement new tools; we ensure they work for the people who use them, fostering confidence and capability across the workforce. 

Our work in helping departments like FCDO build their own Centres of Excellence is ensuring digital skills stick. In other departments we’re running beginner sessions in basic AI tools, such as Co-Pilot on your desktop, to make steps towards democratising access for all. Whether it’s unlocking the full potential of Microsoft tools, embedding AI-driven automation, or upskilling staff to use low-code platforms, we are starting to help make sure civil servants can innovate from within.

 

Eliminating waste through process redesign 

The government’s 5% efficiency savings target isn’t just about spending less—it’s about spending smarter. Pat McFadden acknowledged this when he acknowledged that past methods, such as hiring freezes and voluntary redundancy schemes, have not been effective in improving performance. 

Inefficient processes that slow down service delivery must be reimagined. 

Take the Environment Agency, for example; their permit-issuing process was tangled across 20+ business units, 32 systems, and 100 legacy applications. In the ongoing transformation programme that we are working on with them, we are modernising and integrating these processes with them, we’ve already cut processing times by 80% and saved over 200 FTE days a year. That’s the kind of transformation every department should be aiming for. 

The government’s £3.25bn ‘Transformation Fund’ is a step in the right direction, helping to fund AI pilots and process automation. But to get real value from this investment, departments need to focus on the right changes. We help by identifying where automation and AI can genuinely save time and money—not just where it looks good on paper. 

 

Tackling legacy systems that drain budgets 

Peter Kyle was right when he talked about sluggish technology as one of the biggest barriers to efficiency. 28% of central government systems are classed as legacy, and in areas like the NHS and policing, that figure jumps to 60-70%. Outdated systems don’t just cost money—they waste time, frustrate staff, and slow down services for the public. 

The government wants to modernise. But the challenge is how—especially when many departments are tied into contracts with external IT suppliers. 

We help departments transition smoothly, minimising disruption while moving to secure, cloud-based platforms. And crucially, we focus on making better use of the technology departments already have. Many civil servants have access to Microsoft tools that could automate key processes, but they’re not using them to their full potential. By helping them unlock these capabilities, we help deliver savings without the need for huge new investments. 

 

Making this change stick 

The government is serious about eliminating waste. The question now is: how do we make these changes last? 

At Hitachi Solutions, we help government teams embed digital innovation in a way that sticks. That means: 

  Training civil servants so digital skills stay in-house, not just with external contractors.

   Fixing processes so innovation actually delivers real-world benefits.

  Modernising legacy systems in a way that minimises disruption and maximises impact for the humans using them. 

The drive to eliminate waste isn’t about cutting corners—it’s about getting things right. And by working together, we can ensure the civil service isn’t just leaner but smarter, stronger, and more effective for the future.