A government pledge to spend an extra £10m on preventing postal ballot fraud has been dismissed as a 'half measure' which will not stop voting malpractice at next month's general election.
Gordon Brown's Budget produced a shock with its commitment to create four merged inspectorates covering the public sector. But will this brave new world lead only to greater confusion and upheaval...
Fines, controls, ever more parking zones. Are these sensible ways to cut traffic and pollution, and raise much-needed revenue? Or just an excuse to rip off beleaguered motorists? David Meilton...
Inmates at Britain's largest women's prison are continuing to live in unacceptably dirty conditions, facing serial infestations of pigeons, insects and mice, according to a stinging report from the...
The trouble with most reviews and inquiries is that as soon as they report, their recommendations get farmed out and either float off or sink. Sir Michael Bichard bucked the trend by coming back to...
The Private Finance Initiative has not gone away it's just adapted to meet changing times. Mark Hellowell explores the opportunities and pitfalls in the new areas that the programme is expanding...
Gordon Brown heralded root-and-branch reforms to the regulation of public services as he used his Budget statement to announce plans to slash the number of inspectorates from 11 to four.
Ealing council was improving by leaps and bounds, the Audit Commission itself said so. So when its 'good' assessment was downgraded to 'weak', the London borough went to court and won
As the political parties compete for the most radical cuts to red tape before the election, they are turning their magnifying glasses on to regulation and inspection. While a pruning is overdue, it...
The shadow chief secretary to the Treasury is unafraid to speak of huge Whitehall cuts in his plan for better public services. Joseph McHugh heard his battle strategy
Is our system of government in terminal decline, obsessed by spin and central control? Sir Christopher Foster, a former adviser to both Labour and Tory ministers, thinks so. He uses privatisation of...
Red tape could derail government plans to send disaffected young people out into the workplace to acquire new skills and motivation, business leaders have warned.
Public services in Scotland are delivered as part of a patchwork operation that is starting to fray. Minister Tom McCabe is stitching together a reform package that might begin with a reorganisation...
Beefing up city and county regions might paradoxically be the most effective way of putting the local into 'new localism' in the twenty-first century, argues Gerry Stoker