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28 Oct 20
Councillors at Spelthorne Borough Council have voted to give themselves more control over the authority’s property investment decisions.
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10 Jul 20
Thurrock Council has rejected concerns raised in the Financial Times over its investment strategy, which has seen it borrow more than £1bn from other councils.
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25 Jun 20
The Centre for Public Scrutiny and CIPFA have released a new guide for local authorities in England to support effective financial scrutiny following the Covid-19 pandemic.
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14 Jun 19
A parliamentary inquiry has been launched to examine the impact of regional imbalances in the UK economy.
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8 May 19
The government has issued statutory guidance for English councils to strengthen the role of scrutiny committees.
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11 Mar 19
A budget committee could add another valuable level of scrutiny to the spend of public money, says CIPFA’s Alan Bermingham.
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11 Mar 19
Bodies commissioning health services must improve their performance as they start to cover wider areas as part of the NHS ten-year plan, a group of MPs has said.
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29 Jan 19
Public bodies must shift focus from outputs to outcomes to establish whether programmes make a difference, says CIPFA’s Alan Bermingham
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27 Nov 18
Ports could suffer major disruption after Brexit as the Department for Transport is not prepared for a ‘no deal’ scenario, MPs have warned.
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17 Oct 18
The Public Accounts Committee chair has been speaking “behind the scenes to persuade various players” to enhance the scrutiny of local government spending.
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14 Sep 18
Civil society organisations have expressed disappointment the UK government has not heeded the advice of a group of MPs on aid spending.
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17 Aug 18
The NHS should relax its attitude to e-cigarettes, MPs have recommended in a review of their harmfulness.
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7 Jun 18
The construction firm Carillion “hoodwinked” the government by publishing misleading accounts, according to the chair of the work and pensions committee.
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30 May 18
MPs and a local government umbrella-body have called for greater funding and powers for councils to tackle childhood obesity.
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16 May 18
The government’s £23bn low-carbon heating initiative has failed to meet objectives or provide value for money, a cross-party group of MPs said today.
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11 May 18
Little significant progress has been made on reinforcing ethical standards in outsourced public services, the independent Committee on Standards in Public Life has concluded.
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24 Apr 18
Public sector scrutiny “struggles to keep up” with the “increased complexity of modern government”, according to a think-tank.
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20 Apr 18
Councils need beefed up powers allowing them to confiscate properties from rogue landlords, a group of MPs has urged.
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21 Mar 18
Mayors have expressed their frustration at a lack of dialogue between central and local government in Brexit negotiations, at a select committee hearing.
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19 Mar 18
A group of MPs has told the government to “get its act together” regarding the governance of public-private partnerships set up to boost local economies.
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21 Dec 17
All Jacqui McKinlay wants for Christmas is for the value of government scrutiny to be recognised and for it be a topic of discussion in 2018.
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18 Dec 16
The Public Accounts Committee has issued a renewed warning over scrutiny in devolution deals, saying the government has still not set out how combined authority mayors will be held accountable for...
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6 Oct 16
Auditors general from around the world will gather in Abu Dhabi for the congress of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions in December. PF asked six of them to share their hopes...
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3 Oct 15
Councils dominated by one political party achieve lower procurement savings than more competitive authorities, with the difference as much as £2.6bn a year, according to an Electoral Reform...