National Health Service bed numbers came under renewed scrutiny this week. A spot check revealed that patients were waiting on trolleys much longer than the Department of Health's four-hour limit.
The NHS is failing to meet its New Deal target and there is evidence that a significant number of health service employers have yet to commit themselves to the initiative.
Conservatives in local government this week defended the sacking of John Redwood, one of the few high-profile members of William Hague's shadow cabinet, claiming he was part of the 'party's past'.
By Maria McHale Education leaders have warned the government that its standards agenda will suffer if councils are forced to fund in full the 3.3% teachers' pay rise announced this week. Education...
French, Italian, Portuguese and Belgian environment ministers were gathering in Brussels this week to back calls for 'Car-Free Day 2000' to be extended across the European Union. The launch on...
Receipts on France's state-run Pari-Mutuel (PMU) horse race betting network are rising, which is good news for the French ministry of finance. The bad news is that the rise is only slight and the...
Labour is due to give local authorities an extra £35m in this year's finance settlement but with a warning from ministers that it should be used to curb council tax increases.
The Audit Commission should have its own House of Commons select committee in order to give the public sector watchdog's reports more weight, it was proposed this week.
Gordon Brown has huge room for manoeuvre between tax cuts, spending increases and debt repayment, according to the annual unofficial guide to the chancellor's budget options published this week by...
A national intelligence unit set up by the government to attack organised benefit fraud is to combine the knowledge of the Inland Revenue, police and immigration authorities.
Labour's political reform of local government faces its strongest grassroots opposition yet with elected members of a London council threatening unlawful action.
A local authority insisted this week that it had taken steps to reduce stress among employees after paying a record £203,000 to a former warden at a site for gypsies.
Police forces in England and Wales could lose 300 officers as a result of a Treasury decision not to allow the National Crime Squad and the National Criminal Intelligence Service to claim back their...
The chairman of an independent inquiry looking at the pattern of the school year has criticised the present system as 'medieval' and warned that 'the status quo is not an option'.
Whether the outbreak of flu sweeping Britain is an epidemic is a moot point. Statistically, it isn't. The official figures for reported cases are little more than for January last year.
English National Parks this week warned that the disappointing financial settlement for 2000/01 could delay essential conservation projects and hamper its ability to respond to government priorities...
The Department of Health has signalled a cautious start to its latest modernisation initiative, confirming that only 15 primary care trusts will be formed this year. Thirteen PCTs will be launched on...
Many so-called regeneration projects are, in effect, schemes to help manage the irreversible decline of neighbourhoods caused by low demand for social housing, according a study commissioned by the...
