There’s a lot of talk about ‘big data’ and what it can do for the public sector. The analytical software is available but making sense of data and acting more intelligently as a result are the big...
Sir Bob Kerslake, the outgoing head of civil service, has warned that the next government will face a more difficult task in cutting the deficit from 2015 as many easier savings have already been...
Nearly a quarter of councils have useable reserves that amount to less than 10% of their spending, according to a report published by the Audit Commission, including more than half (55%) of unitary...
Changes to the audit regime for councils being introduced following the abolition of the Audit Commission could weaken accountability for public money and lead to politicisation of scrutiny, MPs have...
Fraud risks are becoming more challenging and complex yet much of the counter-fraud architecture has disappeared. Vivienne Russell reports on a CIPFA initiative to bridge the gap.
Confidence makes a tremendous difference to performance, whether on the sports field or in the workplace, but you can’t touch it, hold it or buy it at the psychology shop. So how do you recover...
Online voting, five-minute digital tax returns and births automatically registered in the cloud. The future of e-government services has arrived – and it’s so much cheaper in Tallinn, too
Government policies have put a rocket under over-inflated house prices while social housing’s share of the total stock has steadily fallen. So how do you rebalance the market?
A programme to develop civil servants’ project management skills has been established by the Cabinet Office as part of government moves to improve the performance of major taxpayer-funded schemes.
Council spending will have fallen by nearly 30% by the end of the current parliament as a result of government funding reductions, an analysis of expenditure by CIPFA has found.
Auditors are increasingly worried about the financial resilience of NHS trusts, with more issuing qualified conclusions on value for money arrangements and statutory reports to the health secretary,...
Local authorities could be forced to publish the value of the council flats and houses that they own, under government plans unveiled by housing minister Kris Hopkins.
Around one-fifth of NHS foundation trust hospitals have still to fully comply with Treasury rules restricting the use of off-payroll contractors, Monitor figures have revealed.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Rural Payments Agency have filed a clean set of accounts for the first time in six years, the National Audit Office confirmed today.
Attacks on computer networks of businesses and public bodies are well documented. But hacking is also affecting international relations, causing fears that cyber espionage will provoke military action
Presentations can be terrifying experiences for the unprepared or the unconfident. But careful planning and an ability to ‘face your fears’ can turn a soporific speech into a peak performance. Angela...
The chair of the Public Accounts Committee has called for an examination into the future of public audit following the abolition of the Audit Commission.
There is little appetite among voters to pay higher taxes to support public services, and other options will be needed to pay for local government and the NHS in future, the CIPFA conference has...
