Whitehall departments made £10bn in efficiency savings last year, £2bn more than forecast, ministers have announced.

Figures released today by the Cabinet Office show procurement savings of £3.8bn accounted for the largest slice of the efficiencies, followed by £3.4bn by reducing the size of Whitehall's workforce and increased contributions to public sector pensions.

A further £1.1bn savings were achieved by improving digital services and reducing expensive property overheads and £1.7bn cost reductions were made by reviewing the performance of major government projects and driving construction costs down.