Public service trade unions this week outlined a plan of action to defeat government proposals to reform staff pensions, but Chancellor Gordon Brown has warned he will not back down.
Comprehensive Performance Assessments will scrutinise councils' financial management much more rigorously from 2005 but the number of inspections will be slashed by two-thirds.
The Gershon efficiency review will contribute to growth of almost 50% in the UK public sector outsourcing market over the next three years, it was predicted this week.
Half of all crime reduction partnerships examined by the National Audit Office have been delayed by up to a year due to bureaucracy and might not achieve their 2002/05 targets.
Charles Clarke has moved to protect degree courses of 'national strategic importance' in the wake of Exeter University's controversial decision to scrap its chemistry department.
More than a third of all local authorities and three-quarters of county councils are using their new prudential borrowing powers, reveals a survey by the Local Government Association.
Stripping councils of their education funding powers will leave schools isolated and hinder the drive towards more integrated services, local government leaders warned this week.
NHS foundation trusts are lobbying ministers to be allowed to bid for the next wave of private sector health care contracts, the Healthcare Financial Management Association conference heard last week.
Education watchdog Ofsted faces a legal challenge after inspectors admitted copying chunks of a report on a Birmingham school from an existing study on a Bradford comprehensive.
A single co-ordinating body must be set up to reduce drastically the bureaucratic burden councils are forced to bear because of the regulation and inspection regime, town hall leaders are demanding.
College leaders have called on Ofsted to review its 'biased' inspection criteria, after the inspectorate branded the number of failing colleges a 'national disgrace'.
The head of a powerful construction consortium has warned the Office of Government Commerce that plans to reform the Private Finance Initiative are flawed.
Millions of pounds in public subsidies may have been gifted to overseas firms that exaggerated regional job creation plans when investing in the UK, the author of a new study has claimed.
Doug Smith's resignation as chief executive of the Child Support Agency is not so much a solution to a crisis, more the beginning of a new chapter in an 11-year saga.
Housing minister Keith Hill this week responded to private sector calls to boost the lethargic social housing Private Finance Initiative market with a programme to help tenants 'get better homes...
Senior public sector figures have spelled out their disappointment with the government after this year's Queen's Speech failed to outline an overarching vision for the future of public services.
Local authorities across the country are to be given powers already available in London to remove and destroy abandoned vehicles dumped in back streets.
The Serious Fraud Office has stepped in to investigate allegations of irregularities in the award of building contracts at Queen's Medical Centre Nottingham University Hospital Trust.
Plans to save the NHS £220m over the next ten years by outsourcing back-office functions rely on a heavy take-up of the scheme, Public Finance has learned.
Inspectors at the Health and Safety Executive have delivered an overwhelming vote of no confidence in their management board as it prepares to tighten the criteria for accident investigations.
Northern Ireland's public bodies are facing a growing financial crisis with all of the province's five education and library boards and some health trusts looking at large deficits unless they are...
