News

  • Public Finance
    20 Feb 03
    Local government minister Nick Raynsford has promised to continue paying for an expansion of councils' workforce training programmes providing a £27m pathfinder scheme launched this week is a success...
  • Public Finance
    20 Feb 03
    Charles Clarke's determination to force two councils to 'passport' education funds is nothing short of a unilateral declaration of independence against the rest of Whitehall, the chief executive of...
  • Public Finance
    20 Feb 03
    Unions launched a campaign this week to expand local government's deal to end the two-tier workforce into defence and health. As the CBI and the Business Services Association savaged last week's...
  • Public Finance
    20 Feb 03
    Local authorities are locked in talks with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister over whether they should slash the discounts on offer to council tenants under the right to buy scheme. Lower...
  • Public Finance
    20 Feb 03
    Labour's £6bn crusade to make the UK an e-government haven by 2005 is in danger of stalling because ministers have failed to encourage the fastest-growing section of the population older people...
  • Public Finance
    20 Feb 03
    The Refugee Council has welcomed a High Court ruling on February 19 which overturned attempts by the Home Office to bar late claimants for asylum from being eligible for shelter and food. Home...
  • Public Finance
    20 Feb 03
    Holloway prison in north London continues to have a 'grossly inadequate' regime, despite showing signs of a commitment to tackle its problems, according to the latest report from inspectors. Anne...
  • Public Finance
    20 Feb 03
    GPs were this week expected to be offered inflation-busting pay rises in return for signing a new contract. An announcement was being made on February 21 on the new general medical services...
  • Public Finance
    13 Feb 03
    ? ??ew Foster, the outgoing controller of the Audit Commission, talks to Mike Thatcher Vincent Square will be a much quieter place when Sir Andrew Foster finally moves on later this year. The...
  • Public Finance
    13 Feb 03
    New freedoms to enable patients to get speedier treatment must be backed up with extra support for elderly and vulnerable patients, according to Help the Aged. This week Health Secretary Alan...
  • Public Finance
    13 Feb 03
    The reward for pharmacists in England and Wales informing on benefit fraudsters has gone up sevenfold. Under an initiative announced this week, they will now be able to claim a £70 reward, up from £...
  • Public Finance
    13 Feb 03
    The government has backed down from its plans to introduce a category of advanced schools. Education Secretary Charles Clarke said a new specialist system would be created instead, with all schools...
  • Public Finance
    13 Feb 03
    Teachers will leave the profession if the government imposes the 2.9% pay rise recommended by the School Teachers' Review Body last week, the National Union of Teachers has warned. The union...
  • Public Finance
    13 Feb 03
    Social services directors this week urged the government to delay the introduction of council fines for hospital 'bed-blocking', as a critical report by the National Audit Office exposed the extent...
  • Public Finance
    13 Feb 03
    The permanent secretary at the Lord Chancellor's Department was forced to apologise to MPs this week after admitting that he misled them over the progress of the Libra IT project. Sir Hayden...
  • Public Finance
    13 Feb 03
    Councils are failing to detect four-fifths of housing benefit frauds, the National Audit Office said this week. The government has also made the system more complex and prone to fraud, despite...
  • Public Finance
    13 Feb 03
    A last-minute intervention by Prime Minister Tony Blair is likely to avert a public row at Labour's local government conference this weekend after unions were granted substantial concessions to end...
  • Public Finance
    13 Feb 03
    The controller of the Audit Commission has hit out at the government for pressurising the watchdog to penalise certain councils in the Comprehensive Performance Assessments published last December...
  • Public Finance
    13 Feb 03
    Local authorities were this week puzzling over how to pay for a government plan to put cafés, crèches and web experts in every public library. Arts minister Tessa Blackstone,...
  • Public Finance
    13 Feb 03
    Visions of 200,000 new houses, millions of pounds to regenerate declining areas in the Midlands and the North, and at least £1bn for houses for key workers dominated Sustainable Communities, John...
  • Public Finance
    13 Feb 03
    Jokes about hospital food could soon be as stale as the infamous British Rail sandwich after NHS meals were given a cautious thumbs-up by the Consumers' Association. The watchdog has surveyed...
  • Public Finance
    13 Feb 03
    A deal struck by mayor Ken Livingstone with Labour at the Greater London Authority will mean a £51 hike in his share of Londoners' council tax this year. Under the mayor's 2003/04 spending plans,...
  • Public Finance
    13 Feb 03
    The chair of a powerful Commons committee has slammed the Inland Revenue for entering into a £220m Private Finance Initiative deal that transferred public buildings to a financially troubled company...
  • Public Finance
    6 Feb 03
    Prison reformers have demanded a review of the Home Office's policy of jailing minors after a damning report was issued this week on the privately run Ashfield young offenders institution in...
  • Public Finance
    6 Feb 03
    Local government employers this week attempted to play down the impending 'crisis' caused by rising numbers of teachers seeking to leave the profession.

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