Eric Pickles, the shadow local government secretary, has described this year's council finance settlement as a 'dog's breakfast' and warned that 'serious funding problems' would hamper new education...
As Prime Minister Tony Blair was again forced to defend the government's controversial plan to impose university top-up fees on students, Minister for Higher Education Alan Johnson was grilled by MPs...
The Prison Service should not be afraid to come down hard on failing prisons and there is scope for both public and private sector prisons to learn from each other, MPs said this week.
Council chief executives this week criticised the government's proposed overhaul of child care across Britain, claiming it was 'too limited' and 'overly focused on local government structures'.
Devolution is here to stay and is likely to continue to evolve throughout the UK, according to one of the principal architects of the Scottish Executive.
Public services viewed by Labour as key 'battlegrounds' in the run-up to the next election received 'below average' reviews in a strategy document released by the Prime Minister's office this week.
As the Lords finally bowed to the will of MPs last week and allowed foundation trusts on to the statute book, any cries of joy from the health service would have been muted.
The Scottish Executive is planning to improve the scrutiny of its budget by providing a performance report to allow MSPs to assess whether targets are being met.
Education ministers were this week urged to widen the scope of pupil assessments, after the National Audit Office discovered that most schools achieve similar standards once factors such as...
Teaching and student unions have poured scorn on the idea that replacing upfront tuition fees with top-up fees will allow young people to 'achieve their full potential'.
Honours committees are out of step with modern society and dominated by an elderly, white male elite, according to government policy papers released by an influential committee of MPs.
The Welsh Assembly has been slammed for having a 'local authority mentality' and not promoting 'experimental policy-making' in a critique by a Cardiff academic.
Local authorities, refugee groups and social workers have condemned controversial plans put forward by the government in this year's Queen's Speech to take the children of failed asylum seekers into...
The government will not impose a single capping threshold on local authorities whose council tax increases are deemed to be excessive, Public Finance has learned, but councils will be expected to...
The Criminal Records Bureau is poised to increase its fees again, just five months after a 100% hike in its charges for criminal checks, Public Finance has learnt.
District councils cried foul and other local authorities renewed threats of council tax rises and service cuts in spite of the proposed 4.7% increase in revenue support grant announced by the...
MPs on the influential Commons' Public Accounts Committee will question Inland Revenue chair Sir Nick Montagu in early December over the National Audit Office's refusal to sign off the Revenue's 2002...
Northern Ireland's auditor general, John Dowdall, has issued a disclaimer on the Department for Social Development's 2002/03 accounts effectively refusing to sign them off.
New shadow local government secretary David Curry has vowed to take the fight for council freedoms and flexibilities to the Labour government following his surprise appointment as one of the...
Lessons have been learned from the debacle when a Public Record Office website of the 1901 census fell apart after less than a week, the National Audit Office has said.
Teachers in England and Wales are to receive an inflation-only, multi-year pay increase for the first time as the government moves to head off a repeat of the schools funding crisis that saw mass...
