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"There are so many inefficient things they haven't got the common sense to sort out."

Stella added that the "economics" behind the rule changes "must have been slightly inefficient", but he said: "I don't think this is a major factor."

The Labour government has set out a number of reforms to shrink the size of the civil service, which ministers believe is bloated and inefficient.

They pointed to the watering of purely ornamental grass in cities, as well as “inefficient industrial processes that use more water than needed due to outdated evaporative cooling systems.”

Kennedy called his department an “inefficient” and “sprawling bureaucracy” that had seen rates of cancer and chronic disease increase as its budget had increased.