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10 Jul 03
The Assets Recovery Agency's legal powers to seize criminals' property still have to be tested in the courts, its director conceded this week.
Jane Earl said the agency had frozen £6m in assets in...
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10 Jul 03
Six senior managers for Network Rail and Balfour Beatty and the firms that employed them have been charged with manslaughter over the Hatfield rail crash that killed four people.
The six men and...
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3 Jul 03
Town hall leaders this week hit out at ministers for relegating councils to the sidelines in the rush to reform public services, and promised to 'fight for local government'.
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19 Jun 03
The union representing prison officers has called on ministers to rethink the government's support for privately financed jails after a report by an influential spending watchdog claimed they were no...
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19 Jun 03
Northern Ireland's comptroller and auditor general John Dowdall, an honorary CIPFA member, was made a CB in the Queen's birthday honours list on June 14.
There were knighthoods for Metropolitan...
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12 Jun 03
Britain's public services are dogged by poor performance and high levels of customer dissatisfaction, while critics who believe privatisation has escalated problems are using the excuse as a '...
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12 Jun 03
A £250m scheme to help public sector workers find homes in high-cost areas will fail to meet its target of assisting 10,000 people by next April, says the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister....
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12 Jun 03
Education authorities should fit sprinkler systems wherever possible in schools or face rocketing insurance premiums, insurer Zurich Municipal has warned.
It said the cost of arson in schools...
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5 Jun 03
There is a 'pressing case' to expand local government's ground-breaking deal on the two-tier workforce to the rest of the public sector, the former transport secretary Stephen Byers said this week...
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5 Jun 03
The government will need to invest heavily to make a success of radical changes to the voting process urged this week by the Electoral Commission.
Proposed reforms include individual rather than...
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5 Jun 03
Home Office officials this week defiantly defended the government's penal policy despite more evidence that Britain's jails are in crisis.
The department said there was 'no need for panic policy-...
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29 May 03
Prison reform experts have slammed the government's slow response to concerns about overcrowding in UK jails in the wake of yet another critical report by the sector's watchdog.
Following a damning...
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29 May 03
A Bill to abolish NHS trusts and establish community health partnerships in Scotland will be one of the first priorities of the Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition Executive, First Minister Jack...
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22 May 03
The government has fined Capita £1.8m for its failings at the Criminal Records Bureau while granting the company an extra £8.4m to compensate it for last-minute changes to the system, Public Finance...
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22 May 03
Growing mistrust of public bodies is being prompted by suspicions that they are not open and honest with service users, the Audit Commission has warned.
Research by pollster Mori has found that,...
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22 May 03
Government plans to dock the housing benefit of tenants who indulge in antisocial behaviour have met a hostile response from local authorities and housing associations.
Work and Pensions Secretary...
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22 May 03
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are threatening to join forces in the House of Lords to scupper government plans to curtail jury trials.
This followed a Commons vote on May 19 that slashed...
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22 May 03
Scotland's deputy first minister, Jim Wallace, is to take on the task of reviving its flagging economy, at the heart of First Minister Jack McConnell's new administration.
Wallace, the Liberal...
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15 May 03
Capita employees are to be given powers to complete criminal record checks and access police files in a move to prevent any further bottlenecks at the Criminal Records Bureau.
Home Secretary David...
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15 May 03
Councils in Scotland look set to be elected by proportional representation after a deal was agreed between the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats for a new ruling coalition in Scotland.
MSPs...
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8 May 03
The IT system for the Criminal Records Bureau failed to meet the government's original specification, a Home Office minister has admitted.
Junior minister Hilary Benn conceded that the CRB's system...
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1 May 03
The Criminal Records Bureau is to place more of the administrative burden for criminal checks on employers while charging them for new services under plans to generate much-needed revenue for the...
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24 Apr 03
North Tyneside's elected mayor, Chris Morgan, has resigned after being questioned by police on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children.
Morgan, one of 11 US-style executive mayors...
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10 Apr 03
The Home Office has rejected the key recommendation from an inspection of asylum seeker detention centres that children should not be held for longer than seven days.
Chief inspector of prisons...
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3 Apr 03
The Prison Service is missing out on potential savings because its procurement procedures are too fragmented, according to the National Audit Office.
The public spending watchdog found that while...