Whitehall to cut consultations and accept more legal risk to speed decisions

The government plans to identify and remove thousands of statutory consultation and reporting obligations. The starting assumption is repeal, with retention only as an exception. Departments are being asked to look for opportunities to strip these duties out through legislation already in the pipeline.

The letter explicitly encourages ministers to accept a higher risk of legal challenge: where there is a "tenable legal argument," ministers may proceed even if government lawyers judge the legal risk as high. Formal guidance for government lawyers will be updated to reflect that approach.

Separately, ministers want to broaden recent reforms that limited judicial-review challenges to nationally significant energy infrastructure. The same constraints could be extended to transport, water, and other large projects to reduce the ability of opponents to use judicial review to delay or halt major developments.

Context: consultancy controls and prior warnings

This drive runs alongside earlier promises to rein in consultancy spending. The government said in 2024 it would tighten controls and deliver annual savings of £1.2 billion by 2026. Media reporting has highlighted apparent inconsistencies: despite that pledge, the Home Office awarded large contracts to consultancies, reported as up to £200 million to Deloitte and up to £150 million to PA Consulting for data and analytics work.

Parliamentary scrutiny has flagged weaknesses: the National Audit Office said the Treasury lacks comprehensive data on consultancy spending, and the Public Accounts Committee found departments were not complying with Cabinet Office controls meant to limit consultancy use. While consultations and consultancies are different activities, the political context makes the timing of the consultation reforms notable.

• How guidance for government lawyers is rewritten and implemented in departments. That will determine whether the encouragement to accept legal risk changes practice.

• Which existing statutory consultation and reporting duties are identified for repeal, and whether those changes survive parliamentary scrutiny.

• Whether departments reduce formal consultations in practice or replace them with quicker, targeted engagement mechanisms that reach relevant stakeholders without lengthy formal processes.