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.
The government's attempts to modernise Whitehall were stepped up this week with the publication of the second report of the Public Services Productivity Panel.
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.
A House of Commons select committee is expected to recommend a merger of the Inland Revenue and Customs & Excise in an attempt to streamline both organisations.
Inaccurate income support and jobseekers allowance payments by the Benefits Agency totalled almost £1bn in 1998/99, figures published by the National Audit Office have revealed.
The benefits system is still losing billions of pounds of public money due to fraud and inefficiency in spite of attempts to improve the service, the Commons Public Accounts Committee has found.
The Private Finance Initiative is expensive and inflexible and deflects from government priorities, a House of Commons Treasury committee was told this week.
The Blair government has launched a ten-point revamp of its New Deal project in an effort to counter suggestions that the scheme is not doing enough to help young people.
Police funding must be doubled for the next three years to avoid cuts in staffing, police authorities in England and Wales will tell the Home Office next month.
The Scottish Executive is facing a showdown with Westminster next week over the treatment of asylum seekers. Home Secretary Jack Straw is anxious to persuade Scotland to accept an extra 1,000 asylum...
The government's drive to deliver public services via the Internet is being undermined by Whitehall's 'risk-averse' culture and its inability to respond to change quickly, the first major...
A West Country council is to continue to work with the IT services company CSL in spite of chaos caused to its benefits payments by the privatised IT operation.
The Treasury is to more than double the number of cross-government spending programmes but has played down claims that this is an assault on the financial independence of individual Whitehall...
A major boost to the Private Finance Initiative in housing came this week with the government's announcement of four PFI schemes, totalling £185m, for the refurbishment of council houses.
The reputation of government executive agencies has been dealt another blow this week after auditor general Sir John Bourn accused the Courts Funds Office of financial mismanagement and losing track...
Only a small number of primary care trusts (PCTs) may be formed next year, following the British Medical Association's insistence that the new bodies should receive support from at least two-thirds...
Local government employers and their recognised trades unions signed a partnership agreement this week guaranteeing greater consultation with employees and their representatives throughout the Best...
Last weekend, the European Union made its first attempt to develop 'an area of freedom, security and justice'. EU leaders gathered at a special summit in Tampere, Finland, to commit to a common...
The Department of Social Security has shied away from a complete overhaul of its computer system in the wake of a catalogue of IT disasters across central government in the past few months.
The £650m third wave of NHS private finance schemes announced on July 7 will lead to the closure or downgrading of hospitals, and could spark another row over private funding.
Social Security Secretary Alistair Darling did little this week to dampen speculation that housing benefit faces abolition in a bid to cut down on massive levels of fraud.
