News story

Business plans published

The Prime Minister has published business plans that set out in detail the work of government for the next 4 years.

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

The plans include data such as financial information, Structural Reform Plans and departmental priorities.

They mark the start of a major change in the way government works and will bring about a power shift in favour of increased government accountability directly to the public.

A searchable database of business plans has also been launched, along with information on departmental structures and salaries, ministerial meetings and hospitality and a range of other data.

Visit the online transparency database.

Prime Minister David Cameron, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and the head of the civil service, the Cabinet Secretary Gus O’Donnell, launched the plans today.

The PM said:

Instead of bureaucratic accountability to the government machine, these Business Plans bring in a new system of democratic accountability - accountability to the people. So reform will be driven not by the short-term political calculations of the government, but by the consistent, long-term pressure of what people want and choose in their public services - and that is the horizon shift we need.

But more importantly the business plans will bring about a power shift by changing what government does. For a long time, government’s default position has been to solve problems by hoarding more power to the centre - passing laws, creating regulations, setting up taskforces. The result is that Britain is now one of the most centralised countries in the developed world.

We will be the first government in a generation to leave office with much less power in Whitehall than we started with. We are going to take power from government and hand it to people, families and communities - and how we will do that is set out right here in these business plans.

The individual business plans can be downloaded below:

Cabinet Office (PDF, 537KB)
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (PDF, 354KB)
Department for Communities and Local Government (PDF, 313KB)
Department for Culture, Media and Sport (PDF, 228KB)
Department for Education (PDF, 221KB)
Department of Energy and Climate Change (PDF, 497KB)
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (PDF, 395KB)
Department of Health (PDF, 286KB)
Department for International Development (PDF, 581KB)
Department for Transport (PDF, 131KB)
Department for Work and Pensions (PDF, 301KB)
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (PDF, 276KB)

HM Revenue & Customs (PDF, 172KB)
HM Treasury (PDF, 227KB)
Home Office (PDF, 278KB)
Ministry of Defence (PDF, 263KB)
Ministry of Justice (PDF, 264KB)

A written ministerial statement on the business plans was laid in Parliament today.

Before the Spending Review was announced in October, departments had published draft Structural Reform Plans setting out their reform priorities and the actions they have been taking to achieve them.

Previous story: Structural reform plans.

Speeches and Transcripts: PM’s speech on Business Plans.

Published 8 November 2010