Government departments will not have to axe 40% from their budgets - despite being ordered to plan for cuts on that scale, a cabinet minister has said. Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said some departments may see cuts "a bit higher" than the 25% announced in the budget and some "a bit lower". Trade unions claim ministers are using the 40% figure to make eventual cuts seem more acceptable. Labour said the plans went too far and would hit frontline services. In his budget last month, Chancellor George Osborne said departments would face average cuts of 25% when the government's public spending review is completed in October - potentially bigger than anything attempted by a previous UK government. Health and aid spending will be ring fenced, while defence and education will face cuts of between 10% and 20%. But Mr Hammond said other departments have been told to go through their budgets "line by line" for savings of between 25% and 40%.