Local government is being forced to choose between paying its staff equally or delivering essential services, Unison general secretary Dave Prentis claimed this week.
Audit Scotland has urged the Scottish Prison Service to carry out a detailed assessment of the £30m correctional programmes for prisoners, which accounted for 12% of the cost of operating its prisons...
Around 200 developers and other organisations have expressed an interest in bidding for grants to build social housing under a scheme due to get under way next month.
The extent to which ethnic groups have their differing needs met by public services is to be more closely monitored under a new race equality plan launched by the Home Office this week.
French government plans to review working practices, together with a number of pay disputes, have provoked a wave of strikes by public service workers across the country.
Unions are to challenge the government over a decision to exempt the higher and further education sectors from the 'two-tier' code to protect workers after reclassifying them as 'private sector'.
A Conservative government would save £35bn on government spending by 2007/08 under the spending plans outlined by Michael Howard and Oliver Letwin this week.
Seven more councils could be encouraged to contract out their struggling social services to other local authorities if a groundbreaking £3.6m rescue deal proves successful.
The long-running pay dispute at the Department for Work and Pensions could end this week after leaders of Whitehall's largest trade union endorsed a three-year deal, worth up to 15% for some staff.
Public service reforms and their emphasis on targets, performance management and choice are to be scrutinised in a major research project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.
Welsh confidence has been dented. The young Assembly government was determined to be different and remodel the NHS around the principle of health promotion rather than the target-driven regime...
Primary care trusts will be forced to set up their own on-line booking services for hospital appointments to overcome GPs' reluctance and meet government targets on Patient Choice, their...
Direct funding would lead to fresh financial turmoil in schools, creating an annual national shortfall of £200m, local government leaders warned this week.
The Ministry of Defence has forced one of the government's biggest IT partners to include a last-minute 'failure' clause in its bid for a £4bn contract, following a series of Whitehall computer...
The sale of the Millennium Dome site in southeast London was well negotiated but long-term success is far from certain, government auditors warned this week.
Council tax collection in Scotland is still lagging behind that in England, with more than £600m uncollected, according to figures published this week.
Town hall leaders are demanding urgent reform of the 'out of date and failing' council tax benefit regime, which they say penalises the very people it is supposed to help.
Hopes that the new education secretary would water down controversial government policies were dashed last week when Ruth Kelly nailed her reformist colours firmly to the mast.
