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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
The Private Finance Initiative is delivering most central government building projects on time and at, or below, estimated cost, the National Audit Office said in a report this week.
Employers and the Fire Brigades Union are to meet next week for 'substantive talks' after the apparent intervention of the Deputy Prime Minister as peacemaker this week.
Public bodies have given the thumbs-up to the government's plan to merge the accounting profession's watchdogs into one 'super-regulator' following a year-long review of the sector.
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...
Local government employers this week attempted to play down the impending 'crisis' caused by rising numbers of teachers seeking to leave the profession.
Mayor Ken Livingstone's Transport for London will finally be given control of the capital's Underground in early summer after a deal with the government this week.
Westminster City Council warned that it was on a 'collision course' with the Office for National Statistics this week as the row over census data escalated with the publication of the final local...
The government faces a 'significant obstacle' to its aim of achieving a world-class education system because too many young people are still being failed by poor schools.
Councils hoping to pump millions of pounds into rundown housing were dealt a major blow this week when the government closed off one possible route for borrowing money.
Transport for London chiefs were this week warned they must make the city's congestion charging scheme an immediate success or it will be 'a lethal body blow' to public-private partnerships.
