The public sector could employ an additional 5,700 doctors, 12,800 nurses or 9,100 police officers annually with the money it loses through two forms of benefit fraud.
Scottish Finance Minister Tom McCabe this week launched a counter-attack against the wave of criticism of the Executive's £1.2bn efficient government initiative.
Housing associations have the potential to raise significantly more private finance, say lenders, even though total borrowing by the sector is already poised to exceed £30bn.
As the Conservatives gear up for their Blackpool conference next week, they face their most important leadership contest in more than 40 years. Philip Johnston analyses the policies behind the beauty...
Public bodies, such as NHS trusts and colleges, are now eligible to defer payment of millions of pounds in VAT, following a European Court of Justice ruling.
The Scottish Executive is to call in external experts to advise on a root-and-branch review of public spending, the first significant cutback since devolution.
Business rates in Scotland are to be cut and brought into line with bills paid in England, Scotland's First Minister Jack McConnell announced this week.
Current UK procurement rules were drawn up decades before the Internet existed and globalisation took off. Now draft regulations aim to bring these up to date and put a new EU directive into effect
An extra £65m is to be spent on health centres, clinics and other primary care facilities in Scotland, First Minister Jack McConnell announced this week.
Britain still dumps most of its rubbish in landfill sites, instead of recycling it. But tough new European Union regulations are set to change all that. David Meilton reports on how councils are...
A parliamentary committee has been urged to hold an inquiry into a £160m Private Finance Initiative project for two Glasgow hospitals that was awarded to the 'preferred bidder' in the absence of any...
People who assault fire officers in the course of their work could be imprisoned for up to two years under the provisions of a draft order published in Northern Ireland.
The number of staff employed by the Scottish Executive has increased by 32% since the devolved Parliament was set up in 1999, latest figures have disclosed.
The Scottish Parliament's health committee is to conduct an inquiry into the Executive's flagship legislation which provides free personal care for the elderly.
The new head of the NHF will be seeing his Edinburgh home only at weekends from now on. But that's a small price to pay for a man with a mission, he tells Neil Merrick
Teachers, doctors, nurses and police officers accounted for just 27% of the 585,000 rise in public sector employment between 1998 and 2004, according to a new study.
I think I feel a primary care shake-up coming on. The government is finally turning its attention from hospitals to family doctor services, says Noel Plumridge. Its mission? To bring back patient-...
