Scotland's 32 councils are generally looking after their finances well but have been slow to develop systematic performance management arrangements, Audit Scotland has told MSPs.
Scottish Finance Minister Tom McCabe has demanded immediate assurances from Inverclyde Council that it will improve its performance following a damning report this week by the Accounts Commission.
Construction costs on the government's £25bn schools infrastructure programme could easily be cut to release more than £200m for frontline services, James Stewart has told Public Finance.
Delivering public services is only one aspect of the work performed by charities, and more emphasis needs to be given to the sector's role in campaigning and providing advice and information.
Wendy Thomson, the prime minister's principal adviser on public service reform, is to return to her native Canada to take up a professorship at McGill University in Montreal
The catering workforce in schools needs to be massively expanded if schoolchildren are to be given healthy and nutritious meals, Unison said this week.
Proposals to reform the state second pension outlined by the CBI this week are under active consideration and could form part of the government's response to Britain's retirement crisis.
Shadow chancellor George Osborne this week accused the government of failing to deliver promised civil service job cuts, leaving Britain's economy ailing.
The government has pledged to help councils manage extra costs incurred by a decision to reverse reforms to the local government pension scheme, Public Finance has learned.
The Scottish Executive's claim that spending on frontline services will grow by 5% as a result of efficiency savings has been challenged by the Holyrood Parliament's finance adviser.
The Office for National Statistics has denied that it intends to include Private Finance Initiative liabilities in public sector net debt, while admitting to exploring how this could be done.
A Scottish council is set to become the subject of one of the most critical reports of a local authority's performance ever produced by the public spending watchdog, the Accounts Commission.
Councils that have privatised their IT services are 'significantly' less happy with their contracts than those that manage them in-house, the Society of IT Management said this week.
Government proposals to give people a leg up on to the property ladder are a step in the right direction, the author of its review of housing supply has told Public Finance .
