Business department 'facing £700m budget cut'

Plans to reduce public spending by £6bn include cutting the business department budget by £700m, the BBC has learned.

The government is to set out where this year's cuts will be made this week.


But the BBC's Carole Walker says £700m will come from Lib Dem Vince Cable's department, while £500m is to come from trimming or axing public bodies.

Ministers say cuts must be made quickly to show Britain is serious about cutting the deficit but Labour says this could put the recovery at risk.

Universities

Ministers have insisted that front-line services will be protected, despite the cuts that will be made.

Chancellor George Osborne said on 17 May that plans for £6bn cuts would be announced this week, while setting a date for an "emergency Budget" for 22 June.

BBC political correspondent Carole Walker said savings at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills would mean "significant cuts" to regional development agencies in the south of England.



There would also be some savings on the universities budget, and reductions in administration costs.

A further £513m would be cut from quangos, with some like the QCDA - which oversees the national curriculum - due to be scrapped, she added.

Queen's speech

The new government has already said it intends to spend less on consultancy, restrict public sector recruitment and scrap some projects such as ID cards.

But with the deficit standing at £156bn, there are far more painful cuts to come, our correspondent added.

Meanwhile, both the Sunday Telegraph and the Sunday Mirror reported that a leaked late draft of the Queen's Speech, due to be delivered by the monarch at the state opening of Parliament on Tuesday, set out an ambitious 18-month programme of at least 21 parliamentary Bills.

The draft is also said to show that key school reforms and the scrapping of ID cards would be brought in within days.

According to the leaked draft, the Queen will announce that the government's priority will be to "reduce the deficit and restore economic growth" and to "accelerate the reduction of the structural budget deficit", with five Bills led by the Treasury.

And the Telegraph says the main themes are "freedom, fairness and responsibility".

It is also said to include a "great repeals Bill" to get rid of Labour legislation opposed by the Tories and Lib Dems when they were in opposition.