Scottish Finance Minister Andy Kerr is to include financial management in senior civil servants' personal performance targets in an effort to tackle underspending by the Executive and public bodies.
Ministers have given cautious approval to the Local Government Association's proposal to take over the Employers Organisation as a way of improving the handling of pay negotiations.
Home Office minister Des Browne has vowed to make the processing of asylum applications more efficient after the National Audit Office claimed that new requirements to speed up decisions had cost...
Hopes that council-owned housing companies might be able to borrow money privately in the same way as registered social landlords have been dashed by a key government adviser.
Patients' power to choose where and when they are treated will be expanded, no matter which party wins the next general election. Both Labour and the Conservatives put patient choice at the heart of...
Communities may take it on themselves to choose which providers clean their streets or empty their bins under a vision of public service delivery set out by the local government minister this week.
Thousands of public sector jobs in Scotland could be axed as part of an efficiency drive affecting civil servants, council staff and employees of public agencies.
Unison maintained its official support for Labour this week in the face of heightened hostility from members, and despite its leaders' private anger at the government's last-minute withdrawal from a...
English local authorities collected an extra £15m in council tax last year, but the rate of improvement slowed, leading to claims from private sector analysts that the government has adopted a '...
Senior civil servants this week warned that more needs to be done to follow up public inquiry recommendations, or Whitehall and governments will never learn the lessons from events such as Dr David...
A government programme to support disadvantaged families with young children is already delivering visible benefits, according to preliminary results of a long-term evaluation project.
The Fire Brigades Union has given employers until the end of July to concede its members their disputed pay deal in full before it begins a ballot for industrial action.
Local plans to improve communities are being undermined by the myriad of confusing and complex funding streams, targets and new initiatives emerging from Whitehall, the Audit Commission has reported.
CBI director general Digby Jones has demanded that all savings achieved by Sir Peter Gershon's efficiency review are independently audited so that ministers' claims of success can be verified.
NHS trusts that fail to implement National Institute for Clinical Excellence guidance on anti-cancer drugs and other treatments will receive lower star ratings, the Healthcare Commission and
the...
Government plans to end the exclusion of people with mental health problems from opportunities in employment, education and housing should become a 'watershed', a leading charity said this week.
A tenfold increase in the bill for transferring the government communications headquarters (GCHQ) to new accommodation has been slated by the Commons' Public Accounts Committee.
Rail regulator Tom Winsor has proposed wide-ranging dispute resolution arrangements for the industry, aimed at preventing a repeat of the legal rows with train operators that followed the 2000...
The auditor general for Scotland, Bob Black, has called for improvements in the management of Scottish Enterprise's business support service to achieve value for money from its £40m funding.
Some of the largest police forces in England and Wales and their chief constables will come under intense scrutiny from the Home Office over the next 12 months, after failing to improve their...
