A timetable for the introduction of proportional representation in local government has been set out by the Scottish Executive.
In a consultation paper, the Executive says the Local Governance (...
The government's attempt to defuse long-standing criticisms of the Private Finance Initiative by tackling some of its more obvious flaws has been greeted with suspicion by the public sector trade...
NHS financial discipline must be tightened and deficits eradicated, Welsh Health Minister Jane Hutt warned this week after a far-reaching review claimed that demand could overwhelm services in the...
The minister charged with tackling delays in housing benefit payments across UK councils has acknowledged that millions of pounds earmarked for improvements this week will not be enough to eradicate...
Government plans to introduce NHS foundation trusts were hanging in the balance despite this week's narrow victory, after a furious Commons' debate on the issue.
Scotland's auditor general Bob Black is to head his own investigation into the soaring costs of the Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh alongside the inquiry conducted by Lord Fraser of...
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 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 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....
It is hard not to feel sorry for Inland Revenue chair Sir Nick Montagu.
With Treasury permanent secretary Gus O'Donnell intent on subjecting the Inland Revenue and Customs...
Housing associations are unlikely to rush into paying board members up to £20,000 per year, the National Housing Federation said this week.
The Housing Corporation announced on July 2 that...
Six senior managers for Network Rail and Balfour Beatty and the firms that employed them have been charged with manslaughter over the Hatfield rail crash that killed four people.
The six men and...
Strategic Rail Authority chair Richard Bowker launched a robust defence of rail privatisation at a parliamentary hearing on July 8, telling sceptical MPs that he wanted to 'drive a stake through 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 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...
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...
