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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Violence and aggression against staff could be costing the NHS £69m a year, the National Audit Office said this week.
In a report, A safer place to work: protecting NHS hospital and ambulance staff...
Taxpayers will be millions of pounds worse off during the next 30 years because ex-council homes are being renovated by new landlords rather than by local authorities, the National Audit Office said...
The government is in danger of leaving more children in care and custody than ever before, despite its good intentions to tackle anti-social behaviour, the children's charity Barnardo's warned this...
The head of the NHS's newly beefed-up counter fraud and security agency has vowed to clamp down on violent assaults against staff in the sector after union claims that the number of incidents is on...
Prisons have suffered a huge turnover of governors and record sickness levels among staff, the Prison Reform Trust has claimed.
In research published this week, the pressure group said that just...
The government is to delegate responsibility for checking potential workers' identities to 'registered bodies' such as local authorities in an attempt to overhaul the beleaguered Criminal Records...
It was not the news that Health Secretary Alan Milburn already facing an embarrassing backbench revolt over foundation trusts and accusations of widespread waiting list fiddling by hospitals...
A former local authority chief executive this week started work as the UK's newest crimebuster. Powers came into force on February 25 which allow Jane Earl to go after the assets of criminals as...
Capita, the business services group, said it expected to double its revenue from transport projects in 2003, following the apparent success of the London congestion charging scheme.
Despite a...
Unison Scotland has called for the effective abolition of the Private Finance Initiative in a manifesto launched ahead of May's elections for the country's Parliament.
It said: 'The time has come...
A Commons committee has accused Whitehall departments of repeated administrative failures and departmental indifference in their approach to the Parliamentary ombudsman.
Holloway prison in north London continues to have a 'grossly inadequate' regime, despite showing signs of a commitment to tackle its problems, according to the latest report from inspectors.
Anne...
It's been a remarkably successful few weeks for London Mayor Ken Livingstone. His £2.7bn budget for 2003/04 was passed with surprisingly little opposition, while his controversial £5 congestion...
Ofsted, the schools' inspectorate, has insisted that it will meet its March deadline to inspect and register all childminders and nurseries, despite a growing backlog of checks.
A spokeswoman told...
The permanent secretary at the Lord Chancellor's Department was forced to apologise to MPs this week after admitting that he misled them over the progress of the Libra IT project.
Sir Hayden...
? ??ew Foster, the outgoing controller of the Audit Commission, talks to Mike Thatcher
Vincent Square will be a much quieter place when Sir Andrew Foster finally moves on later this year. The...
The Private Finance Initiative is delivering most central government building projects on time and at, or below, estimated cost, the National Audit Office said in a report this week.
