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13 Dec 01
Local government employers have emphatically rejected the public sector unions' opening salvo in the 2002 pay negotiations as 'completely unrealistic'.
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13 Dec 01
Gordon Brown has rejected suggestions that promised service improvements resulting from increased public spending are being thwarted by Whitehall's reluctance to spend the extra money.
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13 Dec 01
Officials this week denied that a private meeting between Transport Secretary Stephen Byers and London Mayor Ken Livingstone heralded an imminent U-turn by the government on the Tube's public-private...
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13 Dec 01
The government's decision to give the English NHS fewer national targets and allow patients more choice over where they are treated has been welcomed by doctors and managers.
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13 Dec 01
The NHS has two years to regain public confidence or its principles of a tax-funded, equitable service may be lost for good, health minister Lord Hunt said last week.
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13 Dec 01
Local authority Private Finance Initiative projects may become more difficult to approve as part of the fall-out from the collapse of US energy giant Enron.
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13 Dec 01
Reduced crime and cleaner roads are more important to people in deprived areas than health and education, surveys reveal.
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13 Dec 01
Newcastle City Council has lost its case against a taxi-driver whose cab, it claimed, was the wrong shade of black.
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13 Dec 01
The government has lost millions of pounds because of poor accounting by civil service departments in Northern Ireland, according to the province's financial watchdog.
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13 Dec 01
English and Welsh local authorities this week raised serious concerns over the level of accountability of private sector decision-making under local strategic partnerships.
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13 Dec 01
Postal unions have reassured the public that they do not intend to disrupt the busy Christmas mailing period, despite the threat of strike action in the wake of Consignia's announcement that 30,000...
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13 Dec 01
The Scottish Executive has been accused of 'massaging figures' after it announced an 11% grant increase for local authorities.
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13 Dec 01
Benefits claimants face the stark prospect of a penniless Christmas as strike action by the Public and Commercial Services Union over the screens issue began this week.
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13 Dec 01
Local authorities are to be ranked for the first time, with high-performers promised the freedom to sell their services and set their own council tax levels, according to this week's long-awaited...
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13 Dec 01
Cancer services have improved in England and Wales but the quality of care depends on where patients live and the type of cancer they have, a report from the Commission for Health Improvement and the...
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6 Dec 01
Charities have called for an independent inquiry into the way the government counts homeless people after ministers declared they had hit their target of reducing the number of rough sleepers by two-...
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6 Dec 01
Local authorities face the prospect of having to raise council taxes if they fail to fund their pension schemes adequately in the next few years, according to the Government Actuary's Department.
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6 Dec 01
Education and social services are in line for a budget increase of at least 4% in next year's finance settlement for local authorities.
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6 Dec 01
The Benefits Payment Card was 'one of the biggest IT failures in the public sector' and wasted £1bn, according to the Commons Public Accounts Committee.
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6 Dec 01
Birmingham City Council (BCC) has been hauled over the coals for its 'poor' administration of benefits and 'very weak' attempts at countering fraud.
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6 Dec 01
Chancellor Gordon Brown's scenario for revitalised health spending including an instant £1bn boost was designed to bring certainty and clarity to the argument over funding.
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6 Dec 01
Senior management at London Underground conceded this week that final contracts on the public-private partnership for the Tube, already two years late, could be subject to further delays.
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6 Dec 01
A backbench MP has accused the government of 'rigging the figures' in an attempt to push through more public-private partnerships.
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6 Dec 01
Home Secretary David Blunkett has locked horns with the police by pledging to subject the force to greater scrutiny in a bid to raise standards.
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6 Dec 01
Public sector unions have reacted furiously to the Department of Health's plans to link up with Britain's largest private sector provider.