Do you really need to print that? Ministers told they could save £70BILLION if they ban paper and go digital

Crown Prosecution Service prints 1million sheets of paper every day

Two lorry loads of letters and forms delivered to DVLA daily

Policy Exchange think tank urges ministers to do business online



Taxpayers could save an eye-watering £70billion by 2020 if the government banned paper, it has been claimed.

Whitehall's obsession with forms and documents creates a mountain of paper every year - and keeps thousands of civil servants in jobs printing and shredding it all.

Every day the Crown Prosecution Service prints one million sheets of paper while two articulated trucks loaded with letters and paperwork pull into the Driving and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA).



Farce: Even if someone applies for a passport online, the Passport Office then prints it all out and posts it back to be signed

The Policy Exchange think tank urged the Government to eliminate paper and do everything online unless the activity requires face-to-face interaction.

The think-tank's report, Smaller, Better, Faster, Stronger, claimed the Government is wasting billions of pounds by relying on paper-based public services.

It found that even when people apply for a passport online, the Pasport Office still prints the application off and sends it back to be signed.

The report, written by former Treasury official Chris Yiu, recommended the Government issues and accepts electronic proofs, for example for proof of identity or address.

Among other recommendations, the report called for a ‘LinkedIn for government’ to make it easier to find out who does what and encourage openness and collaboration.

Paperwork: Large parts of Whitehall have not changed the way they work since the 1970s, when Margaret Thatcher was an MP struggling under a pile of papers

The report also said senior Whitehall officials should get more experience of the latest digital technologies and practices.

Mr Yiu said: ‘Switching to digital for everything the Government does would generate billions of pounds worth of savings that could be used to cut the deficit or improve public services.

‘Government is changing, but the world around it is changing faster. With the internet all around us, it's reasonable to expect government to embrace digital. Our public leaders need to rise to the challenge, or risk a chasm between new and old tearing the whole system apart.’

Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude said: ‘This report recognises considerable progress and remarkable potential. We estimate shifting government transactions to digital channels can save £1.2 billion by 2015.