Chancellor Gordon Brown has unveiled plans to give senior finance professionals more say in the management of Whitehall departments in an attempt to help them improve their financial performance.
Stronger performance indicators on cutting obesity and smoking, a national strategy on obesity and more resources for public health services are likely to result from the second Wanless Review.
Chancellor Gordon Brown this week set in motion the roll-out of regional wage settlements across the public services but insisted that changes must be made within existing national pay frameworks.
The government will not impose a single capping threshold on local authorities whose council tax increases are deemed to be excessive, Public Finance has learned, but councils will be expected to...
The £300m IT system brought in to speed up Child Support Agency maintenance payouts has 'failed spectacularly', with less than 4% of claimants receiving payment, according to the Liberal Democrats.
The Criminal Records Bureau is poised to increase its fees again, just five months after a 100% hike in its charges for criminal checks, Public Finance has learnt.
The leader of Whitehall's largest union has criticised the public sector efficiency review being conducted by Peter Gershon after the mandarin admitted he would not scrutinise public-private...
Public services viewed by Labour as key 'battlegrounds' in the run-up to the next election received 'below average' reviews in a strategy document released by the Prime Minister's office this week.
As the Lords finally bowed to the will of MPs last week and allowed foundation trusts on to the statute book, any cries of joy from the health service would have been muted.
The Scottish Executive is planning to improve the scrutiny of its budget by providing a performance report to allow MSPs to assess whether targets are being met.
The Scottish Executive is to press ahead with controversial plans to reform the voting system for council elections, bringing the threat of a Labour rebellion and strong opposition from local...
Education ministers were this week urged to widen the scope of pupil assessments, after the National Audit Office discovered that most schools achieve similar standards once factors such as...
Teaching and student unions have poured scorn on the idea that replacing upfront tuition fees with top-up fees will allow young people to 'achieve their full potential'.
The Welsh Assembly has been slammed for having a 'local authority mentality' and not promoting 'experimental policy-making' in a critique by a Cardiff academic.
Honours committees are out of step with modern society and dominated by an elderly, white male elite, according to government policy papers released by an influential committee of MPs.
Local authorities, refugee groups and social workers have condemned controversial plans put forward by the government in this year's Queen's Speech to take the children of failed asylum seekers into...
The spending of the European Union is still plagued with errors, according to the European Court of Auditors, which this week refused to give unqualified endorsement of the 2002 accounts.
There will be a major review of the impact of the first foundation trusts, the government announced this week in a further package of concessions on the controversial initiative.
MPs on the influential Commons' Public Accounts Committee will question Inland Revenue chair Sir Nick Montagu in early December over the National Audit Office's refusal to sign off the Revenue's 2002...
The question of who is going to pick up the estimated £5m £6m costs of policing US President Bush's state visit remained unresolved this week as the Metropolitan Police Authority called for...