While ballot frenzy hit London Labour Party ranks this week with the closing round to choose its mayoral candidate for the 2004 elections, the Liberal Democrats admitted that they had no interested...
The government 'remains committed' to having elected US-style mayors running town halls, even though Labour was beaten in three of last week's four contests.
The party lost control of traditional...
The wrong kind of sand and 'unexpectedly hot' conditions in a desert were among excuses that embarrassed military officials this week provided for a bungled exercise to test British troops'...
Senior MPs were this week critical of news that the partner of a senior Labour minister is the front-runner to chair the Audit Commission.
Members of the Commons' public administration select...
The National Audit Office has praised the Home Office's victim support scheme for helping 1.4 million people every year.
But, in a report published on October 23, it regrets that the rate at which...
'I hope he's got a way out of this,' a sceptical union leader muses of his colleague Andy Gilchrist, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union. Gilchrist's 50,000 members are poised for the first...
CPA is too inflexible, IDA admits
The Comprehensive Performance Assessment is too inflexible, according to the acting executive director of the Improvement and Development Agency.
John O'Brien...
NHS managers have given a surprisingly strong vote of confidence in the Private Finance Initiative's ability to deliver quality, modern facilities for the health service, according to a survey from...
Senior figures at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister this week said they were 'open to any suggestions' that would improve the supply of affordable housing.
Appearing before the Commons' urban...
Teaching unions are deeply divided over government plans to cut teachers' workloads by employing 50,000 new classroom assistants.
Education and Skills Secretary Estelle Morris announced proposals...
Crucial parts of government plans for housing finance need to go back to the drawing board, according to the Local Government Association.
In the consultation paper, The way forward for housing...
The Treasury's reforms of the 'green book' herald a new era of rigorous investment appraisal throughout the public sector, according to two influential think-tanks.
Gordon Brown's root-and-branch...
The Audit Commission will not take into account local authorities' financial resources or levels of deprivation when grading them under the Comprehensive Performance Assessment, it has confirmed....
The independent review into the fire service will not be rushed into reporting early, its chair told Public Finance this week as ministers and the TUC scrambled for a solution to halt the impending...
The government's plans for individual learning accounts were rushed through with no proper quality assurance or security systems in place, according to the National Audit Office.
The public...
When Norman Perry became chief executive of the Housing Corporation two years ago, one of his first tasks was to oversee the setting up of a new inspectorate.
Business will not be forced to provide workers in public-private partnerships with the same terms and conditions as those in the public sector, the director-general of the CBI has warned.
Top NHS hospitals will be put off applying for foundation trust status if the proposed new regulator is not truly independent, NHS Confederation policy director Nigel Edwards warned this week.
The Local Government Association has condemned the government's plans to fine councils that delay patients' discharge from hospital as a 'spectacular own goal' that could cost some social services...
Londoners could face a huge rise in council tax next year to pay for Mayor Ken Livingstone's spending plans, after the capital's police and fire services said they needed a rise of £35 per household...
Scotland's First Minister Jack McConnell was fighting this week to distance himself from a constituency funding scandal that threatens to mar his term of office.
The widely anticipated suspension of the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly on October 14 was preceded by a flurry of important announcements by ministers before they left their jobs.
The National Institute for Clinical Excellence has hit back at claims that it had finalised plans to limit the availability of a laser treatment that could save the sight of 5,000 people a year.
The Commons' Public Administration Select Committee is to launch a wide-ranging inquiry into the effects of targets and league tables on the public services.
