The Criminal Records Bureau has promised to rectify its 'appalling' service standards after apologising to nearly 100 local authorities that had complained bitterly of an 'administrative fiasco'.
Council taxpayers in Bedfordshire may be asked to stump up around £500 each to cover the cost of the riot at Yarl's Wood detention centre, it was revealed this week.
Public services are to receive an extra £4bn in 2003/04, with over half allocated to the health service, Chancellor Gordon Brown announced in this week's Budget.
NHS managers dazzled by this week's £40bn Budget boost called on the government to trust them to improve the health service. But they warned ministers not to expect instant results.
English local authorities have doubled the amount of useful products they retrieve from household waste since 1996/97, according to new government figures.
The Department for Environment, Food and...
The government's housing transfer programme was back on course this week after Liverpool tenants voted to switch 13,500 homes to registered social landlords.
Members of the Best Value Review Group fear that ministers will fail to effect substantial change because the government is too concerned with juggling the interests of employers and the unions...
The three big public sector unions have overwhelmingly rejected local authorities' pay offer, paving the way for the first national strike by local government staff since the 1970s.
The opposition parties launched their local election campaigns this week by targeting traditional Labour strongholds as their battlegrounds while pledging to devolve more power to local communities.
The government took the unusual step of publishing an implementation plan for the local government white paper this week but failed to commit itself to a legislative timetable for reforms.
The government's programme of transferring council homes to registered social landlords suffered a major setback this week when tenants in Birmingham rejected a transfer proposed by their local...
The cost of meeting the government's e-voting targets could be a stumbling block in overcoming voter apathy, according to the Electoral Reform Society.
The firm planning to build a new national stadium in Wembley denied this week that its scheme was faltering, despite fears that a financial healthcheck on the £600m proposal will delay construction...
The Local Government Association and the NHS Confederation have joined forces to press Chancellor Gordon Brown over what they claim is a £1bn gap in social services provision.
The Liberal Democrats pledged to create a 'world-class NHS' with more investment than ever before when they unveiled their alternative Budget on April 8.
Local government minister Nick Raynsford this week announced the latest batch of councils to be awarded Beacon status for their excellence in delivering public services.
Local authorities in Wales have a poor record on employing senior female staff and people from ethnic minorities, while service standards still show huge disparities, according to a compendium of...
Debts of up to £500m inherited by English primary care trusts should be written off by the government, an influential group of NHS professionals has said.
Thirty-three finalists have now been chosen by the judges of the Public Servants of the Year Awards to go forward to the final ceremony in London next month.
