The civil service lost £348.5 million worth of working time due to sickness absence in 2019-20.

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Civil service sick days worth £350 million each year
Following last week's encouraging news that the government is set to find savings in the Whitehall workforce, we revealed that the civil service lost £348.5 million worth of working time ([link removed]) due to sickness absence in 2019-20.

Our analysis suggests that if civil service absence rates matched that of the private sector, nearly £55 million worth of working time could be immediately regained each year.
Covered by national papers such as the Daily Express and Yorkshire Post we also learned that admin or assistant civil servants were the most likely to be absent of any grade.

The government must get the most out of the existing Whitehall workforce. Ministers must explore every opportunity to improve value for money in the civil service and ease the burden of bureaucracy on struggling taxpayers.
Click here to read the research in full. ([link removed])
£49 million of taxpayers’ money paid for lobbying and political campaigning
Just this morning our latest hard-hitting research has revealed that organisations that lobby for changes in public policy have received £49,011,318 of public money ([link removed]) since 2018, including over £19 million during the covid pandemic.

Nearly £7.7 million was given to organisations actively fighting the government’s scheme to resettle migrants in Rwanda, including Migrant Help, Stonewall, Refugee Action, Hope Not Hate and Instalaw.
Taxpayers have had enough of governments giving grants to organisations who lecture and lobby. The public purse should not be paying out to pressure groups who are in turn using that cash to push for policy changes. Ministers must put a stop to this needless merry-go-round, and instead focus funding on taxpayers’ priorities.
Click here to see the other organisations that received taxpayer funds. ([link removed])
Grassroots news
On Wednesday our team paid a visit to the picturesque market town of Morpeth for the latest leg of the Town Hall Rich List Roadshow.

We were there to ask local residents whether they thought Northumberland County Council's (NCC) HR director deserved remuneration (in 2020-21) of £185,456 - of which £14,470 was for perks!
Using coloured ping pong balls to cast their votes the overwhelming answer from the public was "No".

Many people we spoke to were absolutely livid at the poor quality of services they received from the council. Taxpayers are sending the NCC a clear message!
Next week we'll be in Skegness for the third leg of the tour. If you'd like to join us or pop along and say hello then please get in touch. (mailto:[email protected]?subject=THRL%20Roadshow)
TaxPayers' Alliance in the news
Government delays BOGOF ban

Following pressure from the TaxPayers' Alliance, the government delayed restrictions on multibuy food deals that are high in fat, salt or sugar by a year. To discuss the taxpayer win, our media campaign manager Danielle Boxall was a guest on BBC Radio 5Live. ([link removed])
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Speaking to presenter Stephen Nolan and listeners across the country, she took aim against the nanny-state and called on the government to go further. It should look to extend the delay (and ideally abolish restrictions) as the cost of living crisis, particularly with regards to food, is unlikely to end soon. Click here to listen to a clip from the interview. ([link removed])
TPA ramps up pressure to axe BBC licence fee

After reports that the BBC is still hounding elderly and vulnerable people over non-payment of the licence fee, it once again raised questions about its suitability.
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Weighing in on the discussion, ([link removed]) our digital campaign manager Joe Ventre told viewers of TalkTV, "Quite literally tens of thousands of people are prosecuted every year for non-payment of this fee!"

It's high time ministers axed the tax sooner rather than later and eased the burdens on households' finances.
NHS set to miss treatment targets

TheDaily Mail reports ([link removed]) that NHS England "will likely still be missing crucial cancer targets next year... despite the Government promising performance to return to pre-pandemic levels by spring 2023."

Given taxpayers are paying more tax than ever to fund public services, surely they deserve world-leading care?
In his comments to Daily Mail readers, our chief executive John O'Connell called for serious improvement, "Health bosses must ensure that all patients get the level of service they need and get to grips with cutting towering backlogs. Britons faced a national insurance hike of 1.25 per cent from April to help raise £39billion over three years to boost NHS capacity to tackle the backlog and reform social care."
Councils waste millions on weight loss scheme

Local authorities receive grants to help tackle obesity in their communities. The last figures reveal that of the 15,500 referrals for weight loss, one-third of people never bothered to enrol. Of those, just 1,600 finished the weight-loss courses and only 220 lost five per cent of their body weight. The cost to the taxpayer? £30 million!
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Former MP and TalkTV presenter Nick de Bois was livid at the news and spoke to our policy analyst Darwin Friend for further insight. Darwin told viewers the shocking statistic that "per successful weight loss case that works out at £136,000!" Click here to watch the interview. ([link removed])
Blog of the week
Five of the strangest taxes in history

The UK’s tax code is notoriously long. Within there are countless examples of unnecessary, unnecessarily complex and downright harmful taxes and tax exemptions. As our investigations campaign manager, Elliot Keck writes, this isn’t a recent phenomenon. ([link removed])
The history of taxation is littered with examples of the bad and the ugly. For example, did you know that in Rome they actually had a urine tax? Click here to read more about the strangest taxes in history. ([link removed])
War on Waste
Scotland's worst quango?

A Scottish quango has come under the spotlight after a litany of issues have been reported. Registers of Scotland (RoS) logs official paperwork for legal transactions such as house sales. But last week it revealed it has a backlog of 100,000 cases.

All the while, the chief executive has received a pay increase of at least £20,000 and staff are working shorter weeks while working from home.

Once again it shows how bloated and inefficient the public sector has become in some quarters. The Scottish government needs to act and get taxpayers bang for their buck!

Please send me your examples of public sector waste. (mailto:[email protected]?subject=War%20on%20Waste)

Harry Fone
Grassroots Campaign Manager

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