Security firm G4S has issued the Ministry of Justice with £23.3m in credit notes after it acknowledged it charged for monitoring electronic tags when equipment had not been fitted or had been removed
The merger of Scotland’s eight police forces into one national service faces ‘significant challenges’ if it is to secure the £1.1bn worth of savings expected from the reform, auditors have warned.
Government action is needed to address the public’s lack of confidence in outsourcing deals, including concerns that private sector firms are making unfair profits, the National Audit Office has said...
Councils should be handed powers to force private landlords to crack down on anti-social behaviour caused by their tenants, the Local Government Association has said.
Probation officers have voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action in protest at government plans to outsource much of the service in England and Wales to private and voluntary providers
More for less has got to be the watchword if public services are to shape up in the years ahead. Mobile technology and improved data analytics are key ways to raise productivity
The Ministry of Justice’s approach to outsourcing probation contracts will be a test of the government’s commitment to voluntary, social, mutual and co-operative organisations. Many fear...
Decades of inefficient spending on computing systems by the Metropolitan Police has meant opportunities to cut crime in London have been missed, a report said today.
Police and crime commissioners should be given additional powers, including the ability for sack local prison governors and probation service bosses, a think-tank has said.
Plans to introduce a payment-by-results system into probation services risk ‘backfiring’ as the model could penalise successful providers, the Social Market Foundation warned today.
Local authority spending in England will have fallen back close to 2007/08 levels this year, according to figures from CIPFA and the Department for Communities and Local Government.
MPs have called for responsibility for forensic science services to be removed from the current minister who has come under unusually strong attack in a select committee report.
It is too easy for elected police and crime commissioners to remove chief constables from office, MPs warned today as they called for better scrutiny of the process
The Cabinet Office has ordered a government-wide review of contracts held by G4S and Serco after an audit found that the Ministry of Justice had been billed for millions of pounds worth of electronic...
Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has backtracked on plans to remove the choice of solicitor from defendants on legal aid. The move was expected to cut the £220m from the legal aid bill as part of...
Education and health emerged as relative winners from today's Spending Review, with the chancellor pledging an overhaul of the school funding system and reaffirming the government’s commitment to the...
Public sector employment in the UK continues to decline, falling by 22,000 to 5.7 million over the first three months of the year, official figures show.
Senior officers in Scotland’s newly centralised national police force have angered council leaders by suggesting that the police merger could form a template for getting rid of many local authorities.
The government today confirmed plans to radically shrink the probation service and provide long-term supervision of all released prisoners, with services provided mainly by the private and voluntary...
Scottish Finance Secretary John Swinney has announced a £290.8m investment boost for housing plus plans to shift funds from colleges and police to make up for central budget cuts.
The police could become more efficient and effective by looking at how other public services have reorganised themselves, new chief inspector Tom Winsor said today.
