Finance Secretary John Swinney has ordered Aberdeen City Council to take immediate action to implement an improvement plan following a damning report on its performance.
Elderly people and their carers should be given the flexibility to use personal social care budgets to fund gardening or cleaning services, care minister Ivan Lewis has urged.
Local authorities have welcomed extra funding to help tackle violent Islamic extremism but say this must be matched with the flexibility to implement local solutions.
Communities Secretary Hazel Blears has announced more cash for Planning Aid, to enable people to have a voice in the planning process. Blears said on June 2: 'The Planning Reform Bill currently going...
Fire minister Parmjit Dhanda has announced a new equality and diversity strategy for the fire service, which includes what he described as 'the toughest ever recruitment targets for women and people...
The Scottish Government's plan for a local income tax has suffered a further setback after claims by a leading professor of law that it 'almost certainly' breaches the European Charter of Local Self-...
Ballot papers for industrial action will be sent to almost 1 million union members in local government this week, amid continuing unrest over the government's public sector pay cap.
The Scottish Government should be given the same borrowing powers as local authorities, Finance Secretary John Swinney has told a parliamentary committee.
Academies have been attacked as the playthings of their sponsors. This is unfair, argues Rod Aldridge, who sponsors two of the schools. They're all about hard work and giving better options to pupils...
The near-revolt over the 10p tax band reveals how Parliament is beginning to exercise its powers to scrutinise government's tax and spending plans a development vital to democracy, argues Colin...
The economic downturn has heightened business concerns about the new supplementary business rate, the British Chambers of Commerce has told Public Finance .
A public sector anti-fraud initiative that has detected millions of pounds in benefits overpayments and some 'blatant and shocking' fraud is to be expanded to Whitehall departments this year.
John Healey has signalled a possible major expansion in the role of Local Area Agreements, suggesting they might become the principal mechanism through which central government commissions local...
The care records systems at the heart of the NHS's huge National Programme for IT will not be fully deployed until 2014/15 four years later than planned, the National Audit Office has warned.
The way population estimates are compiled should be radically overhauled as the current systems are unreliable and potentially inaccurate, according to a committee of MPs.
Children's minister Beverley Hughes has announced a £35m pilot scheme to improve access to childcare for parents with disabled children. Part of the Department for Children, Schools and Families'...
