Minister for Children Margaret Hodge is to propose a commissioner for children in a green paper to be published in the autumn.
She told a Local Government Association conference on July 8 that the...
The Local Government Association's hunt for a successor to Neil Kinghan has been thrown into disarray after top Treasury mandarin Adam Sharples turned down the job, Public Finance has learned....
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets has suspended two senior regeneration officers following allegations of large-scale misuse of public funds at organisations linked to two borough councillors....
The government needs to target its proposed hike in higher education cash more effectively to those who need it, a Commons committee claimed this week. It also argued that plans to improve university...
The Assets Recovery Agency's legal powers to seize criminals' property still have to be tested in the courts, its director conceded this week.
Jane Earl said the agency had frozen £6m in assets in...
The Department of Health is in talks to develop a bond market to allow foundation trusts to raise capital, Public Finance has learnt.
A source at the department said there had already been...
Transport Secretary Alistair Darling has launched a massive road-building programme and signalled that the government's long-term aim is road pricing.
Darling said: 'On any view, existing capacity...
One of England's largest housing stock transfers has hit trouble in its first 100 days, with the Housing Corporation intervening on July 8 to impose four sector heavyweights as board members....
Hopes that a deal on consultants' terms and conditions could be struck were raised this week when the new health secretary invited doctors' leaders to a meeting to discuss the way forward.
Westminster City Council has spent more money in the past 18 months trying to trace the assets of its disgraced former leader Dame Shirley Porter than it has been able to recover.
Allegations...
Fire authority employers have warned of further industrial strife in the wake of the plans to overhaul firefighters' working practices and service structures.
An influential think-tank has criticised relations between council officials and civil servants in Scotland.
A Scottish Council Foundation report, Innovation in public services, resulted from a...
The government's anti-age discrimination proposals unveiled this week should not force employees to work until they 'burn out' before they qualify for pensions, Unison has warned
Sickness absence costs the roads and water services in Northern Ireland more than £2m a year, the auditor general has found.
In a report this week, John Dowdall said that 40,000 days were lost in...
Town hall leaders this week hit out at ministers for relegating councils to the sidelines in the rush to reform public services, and promised to 'fight for local government'.
Patients harmed by substandard NHS care will be offered an explanation and compensation of up to £30,000 under proposals unveiled this week that aim to cut the burgeoning health service clinical...
Local authorities may have to be stripped of their role in distributing housing benefit unless they can do better at tackling fraud.
That idea was flagged up in a report by the Commons' Public...
The Commons' Public Accounts Committee has ruled that the £87m paid out by the Department for International Development to alleviate water poverty in 2001/02 was well spent.
But the MPs demanded...
Scottish Water has defended a controversial scheme to pay bonuses to all of its employees at a time when it is being criticised for soaring charges.
Politicians and business leaders claimed the...
The possibility of a merger of the ombudsman services for local authorities, central government and health has receded indefinitely, local government ombudsman Tony Redmond has complained in his...
The Inland Revenue lacks ambition in its target of persuading half of all employers to pay tax and national insurance by the due date each month, according to the Commons' Public Accounts Committee...
Network Rail has announced plans to cut £1.3bn off its spending by 2006/07 through efficiency savings equivalent to 20% of its costs.
The company issued its business plan in March, in which it...
Imposed targets and growing local autonomy must proceed hand-in-hand to improve public services, a study of some of England's best councils concludes.
The Improvement and Development Agency,...
Threatening to prosecute parents has caused a marked reduction in classroom truancy, the government claimed this week.
Figures from the Department for Education and Skills on July 2 showed that...
The Audit Commission has given in to pressure from council leaders and scaled back plans to increase the thresholds between performance categories when the Comprehensive Performance Assessments are...
