Northern Ireland is to follow the example of the Republic of Ireland and Scotland by banning smoking in all workplaces and enclosed public spaces from April 2007.
Chief inspector of schools David Bell has backed plans for greater autonomy for head teachers, which are widely expected to be included in the education white paper due to be published next week.
There is no evidence for the government's claim that construction projects built under the Private Finance Initiative are better value for money than conventional procurement, a report for the public...
Managers in the public sector came under fire from a leading economist at the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers annual conference this week.
Scottish Water has improved its efficiency and slashed operating costs but it could still do better, according to a report from Audit Scotland this week.
The Statistics Commission is calling for all data used in government policy documents to be formally approved by a statistician to guarantee their accuracy.
The system for awarding benefits to sick and disabled people is 'crackers', according to Work and Pensions Secretary David Blunkett, because it is too complicated and wide open to error and fraud.
Care commissioners and providers need to do more to stop the abuse of elderly people rather than blaming its occurrence on lack of resources, a conference organised by the Commission for Social Care...
Cabinet secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell this week backed calls for a civil service Act to enshrine Whitehall's independence, but warned that his legislative preferences could be thwarted by political...
A study saying that England's pensions crisis has been overstated makes the 'unrealistic' assumption that thousands of pensioners would sell their homes for retirement income, experts have claimed.
Opponents of new house building are grossly exaggerating the impact that it will have on rural areas in Southeast England, councils were told this week.
Some five million householders in England and Wales are at risk of flooding - and as many as 41% of them are unaware of the dangers, the Environment Agency has warned.
The government failed to act on warnings that payment by results could plunge NHS trusts into financial chaos, despite being told of the risks by the Audit Commission more than a year ago.
A leading educational charity has hit out at the inequities in the education system, releasing research showing that only a tiny proportion of the country's poorest children have access to the best...
The private sector will carry out more than 18% of operations to NHS patients by 2008, a report by the authoritative health market analysts Laing & Buisson has estimated.
A new efficiency plan showing how resources for affordable homes can be made to deliver more has been produced by Communities Scotland, the executive agency responsible for housing and regeneration...
Ministers have left ample scope to opt out of implementing two-tier workforce agreements across the public sector, despite pledging to end pay variations for transferred staff, a leading academic has...
Welsh local government leaders are demanding financial help directly from the Treasury to plug the funding gap they claim has been created by a delay in publishing the results of Sir Michael Lyons'...