England's councils could exceed their £1.2bn efficiency target for 2005/06, according to a comprehensive study of 152 local authorities by IPF, the commercial arm of CIPFA.
The drive to remove failed asylum seekers from the UK needs to be coupled with a determined effort to get decisions right first time, refugee campaigners said this week.
Senior mandarins fear that the government's secretive change to the legal status of special advisers, which came to light this week, will give spin doctors new powers over civil servants.
Government plans to cap eight councils' budgets received the go-ahead in the High Court this week when an appeal for a judicial review by South Cambridgeshire District Council failed.
Government plans to slash the number of people claiming incapacity benefit have suffered a blow after a detailed statistical exercise revealed there were 135,000 more recipients than estimated.
Councils and housing associations should be able to decide which properties can be sold under a new government scheme to extend home ownership, according to the Chartered Institute of Housing.
Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt has pledged to continue the market reforms in the NHS by opening further sectors to private sector competition and increasing patient 'voice' within the system.
Two-thirds of Britain's rail stations do not have CCTV recording equipment, despite concerns that the overland network is vulnerable to terror attacks similar to those in London on July 7 and Madrid...
The management of Private Finance Initiative contracts is to come under intense scrutiny by Partnerships UK amid concerns that civil servants lack the expertise necessary to oversee them, Public...
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.
The rise in emergency admissions and the problem of patients who cancel their operations have contributed to the under-use of day surgery facilities, the NHS Confederation claimed this week.
Successive governments have been too eager to hold on to power at the expense of local communities, the new minister in charge told the Local Government Association conference in Harrogate.
The government's decision to cap the budgets of eight English councils has prompted warnings of service cuts and complaints about the cost of rebilling.
A crackdown on racketeering and deceit against the health service has saved £675m and cut patient fraud by 54% in the past seven years, the NHS Counter Fraud and Security Management Service said this...
A government drive to reduce the cost of social housing is threatening the financial stability of registered social landlords, the Housing Corporation was told this week.
Bedfordshire County Council is on the point of terminating its £250m contract with supplier HBS because it claims the firm has not tackled problems in the support services it provides.
Public sector organisations lag far behind their private sector counterparts when it comes to accurate and timely financial reporting, auditors said this week.
David Blunkett has signalled his scepticism over claims by a number of organisations that the bedrock of a reformed pensions system should be more generous and non-means tested state provision.
