Roundtable discussion at PublicTechnology Live, held in partnership with Hitachi Solutions, sheds light on what it takes to wield an “iron fist against waste” in government
In government, the word “waste” tends to get tossed around a lot, especially by politicians. But what actually counts as waste inside Whitehall is often far more complicated than media headlines or campaign slogans let on. However, the looming Spending Review makes understanding waste in government even more critical.
At a recent roundtable hosted at PublicTechnology Live and supported by Hitachi Solutions, senior civil servants and digital transformation experts from across government and the wider public sector came together to discuss this very issue. Held under the Chatham House Rule, the conversation quickly moved beyond simple notions of cost-cutting and into the deeper question of how government can use digital tools, data and service design to deliver better outcomes for citizens and civil servants. They agreed that to tackle waste, you need to start by understanding it.
What is waste, really?
Forget the idea that waste is just about spending too much or having too many people. Around the table, there was broad agreement that some of the biggest inefficiencies in government come not from overspending, but from missed opportunities, failing to prevent problems early, or designing services in silos. As one participant put it, the big wins aren’t about delivering something slightly cheaper. They’re about solving the problem before it lands on your desk.
In other words, waste is both financial and strategic in nature. And sometimes, the most “productive” thing government can do is stop a problem before it starts, even if it doesn’t show up in the usual spreadsheets.
Structural silos
A common theme from the discussion was that a lot of public sector waste has little to do with frontline performance, and everything to do with how departments are structured. Several participants described how internal fragmentation, duplicated systems and “the cult of ownership” can stall even the best digital reforms.
One participant pointed out that everyone in government is trying to fix their bit of the system, but no one’s looking at it as a whole, which results in sub-optimisation. Services that might work well in isolation add up to something far less effective when stitched together.
Not a silver bullet, but a sharp tool
There was plenty of enthusiasm for digital and AI done right. What matters, speakers said, is using tech with purpose, not just adopting the latest thing because it sounds exciting.
One example came from the DVSA, which used machine learning to target inspections at MOT garages, leading to a threefold improvement in enforcement outcomes. The key wasn’t the technology itself, it was the clarity of the problem it was solving.
A participant advised starting with the outcome, not the tool you’ve got, noting that leading with the tech can result in automating bad processes. And that, according to several speakers, is a real risk: embedding inefficiencies more deeply into government just because they’ve been digitised.
Skills, scale and service design
Much of the conversation turned to the human side of transformation. The government’s goal to have 10% of civil servants in digital roles is ambitious, but as many around the table noted, the real challenge isn’t hiring more digital specialists but embedding digital thinking across the whole workforce. As one attendee put it, “We need to focus on digital tooling skills, but surely we should be setting that in the outcome we want, which is service transformation”.
The sentiment at the table pointed at upskilling everyone, not just developers and data scientists, but also policy teams, operations, and contract managers, so they can work together to design better services from the ground up.
Rethinking what we measure
One of the most powerful takeaways came from a conversation about metrics. If we only measure output – calls answered, claims processed, forms submitted – we risk missing the bigger picture.
As one speaker pointed out, true productivity is preventing the problem from needing your service in the first place. That kind of preventative value often gets ignored in traditional performance reviews. But it’s exactly the kind of long-term thinking the civil service needs, especially as it confronts complex challenges like social care, education, and climate change.
New technologies, such as AI, offer fresh ways to track long-term outcomes, spot patterns across services, and even anticipate future pressures. But for these tools to be genuinely useful, government needs to be clear on the basics: what problem are we solving, what data are we using to solve it, and how is that technology being applied in practice? Without that clarity, there’s a real risk of deploying innovation without impact.
Towards a smarter state
Ultimately, the roundtable made one thing clear: to wield an “iron fist against waste” won’t come from squeezing out more with less. It will come from working differently: collaborating more, designing smarter and putting citizens at the heart of how services are shaped.
To that end, we need to get better at seeing value not just in numbers but in outcomes. In preventing crises, not just managing them. In enabling civil servants to do more of what matters, and less of what doesn’t.
As one attendee put it: “Waste is complex. You need to define it properly if you’re going to tackle it effectively.” The same could be said for transformation itself.
About Hitachi Solutions
Hitachi Solutions partners with government organisations to deliver sustainable transformation powered by Microsoft technology. We help leaders innovate to eliminate waste by being human-centric by default, deploying tech in a mindful, practical and lasting way.
