Costs are ‘mounting alarmingly’ at the Child Maintenance Enforcement Commission, where defective IT systems have led many cases to be processed by hand, MPs warn in a report published today
Local authorities facing losses following the collapse of the Icelandic banks are challenging the government’s ‘irrational’ decision to allow only some councils to spread their losses
MPs are calling on the government to stop funding homeopathy, arguing that the treatments are unreliable and have no greater clinical use than placebos
Safeguarding the budgets of health and education could leave unprotected public services facing cuts of up to 50%. Wouldn’t it be fairer to plug the fiscal hole by ‘salami-slicing’ the whole lot,...
The controversy over unitary status for Exeter and Norwich councils was stoked this week after local government leaders criticised the plans as ‘financial madness’
The first reports from 13 pilot projects provide a wealth of data. One thing is clear: public services focus too much on symptoms and too little on causes
Funding to expand free nursery education for all should be redirected to only help children from the poorest families, according to report published today
Giving children the best possible start in life should be the priority to reduce inequalities in life expectancy, says a government-commissioned report published today
Unequal Britain can’t be changed simply by giving individuals ‘opportunities’, argues Lisa Harker. It needs a government prepared to invest in more skilled jobs for the future and to narrow the...
Following a government green paper, defence professionals are coming to terms with inevitable budget cuts and are asking where they would hit least hard. Lucy Phillips reports
Seventeen councils are to receive £1m to train staff as part of a campaign to turn hundreds of empty private homes into social housing or sell them to first-time buyers.
The chair of an influential MPs’ panel on the environment has claimed that a new carbon emissions trading scheme covering much of the public sector could prove to be ineffective.
Public sector organisations face a bill of more than £40bn in Private Finance Initiative charges over the lifetime of the next Parliament – as part of a £217bn total liability stretching over three...
