Gershon Review

The Gershon Efficiency Review was a review of efficiency in the UK public sector conducted in 2003-4 by Sir Peter Gershon.

Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, then Chancellor of the Exchequer and Prime Minister respectively, appointed Peter Gershon, at that time the head of the Office of Government Commerce, to review operations across all public services and make recommendations regarding expenditure and efficiency. His report recommended making savings for Financial Year 2005–6, to be achieved through dramatic changes to the organisation of each government department and automating their work patterns, in order to 'release' resources from the public sector budget that was then approximately £520bn. These gross savings of £21.5bn were reported to have been achieved by 2007 and agreed as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review in 2004 and subsequent budget.

The effect of these objectives has been for all government departments to agree reductions on their long-term budgets, and then work out how to fulfill these challenging promises without crippling their existing obligations and service.