Government ministers have conceded that they will not stand in the way of attempts to make the BBC more accountable to licence-payers.
MPs rejected proposals to open the corporation up to public...
A revised GP contract will put patients at the heart of NHS primary care services by ushering in a radical reform of the way practices are funded.
The proposed contract, published late last week,...
A new partnership body set up to boost housing in the Northwest has admitted that it must attract substantial private money because of uncertainty over government funding.
Elevate East Lancashire...
Information technology contractor ITNet has been removed from Islington council's housing and council tax benefits contract. The London borough will take the service back in house on May 1....
The row over the education 'passporting' fiasco escalated this week, when the Local Government Association accused Charles Clarke of effectively ringfencing cash from council tax rises.
A letter...
The Liberal Democrats outlined their alternative 'cash-back' Budget this week, pledging free care for the elderly and the abolition of tuition and top-up fees for students, but no increases in public...
Growing use of tools such as offshore bank accounts to avoid paying tax could be costing the Treasury billions of pounds in lost revenue every year. Measures to combat the problem should be taken...
A West Country hospital trust accused of doctoring its waiting lists and accumulating millions of pounds in debts this week claimed it is on the mend, despite an Audit Commission report expressing '...
Ian Pearson, Northern Ireland's interim finance minister during the suspension of the Assembly, has announced a £2bn spending programme under the Reinvestment and Reform Initiative agreed last year...
Bradford has become the first local authority to have its early loan redemption fees paid to help fund a housing transfer.
The city council's handover of almost 25,000 homes to Bradford Community...
Students faced with the prospect of student debt are heading for northern universities at the expense of London, according to figures from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service....
A £60m campaign to clean up hospitals and provide better food is working, health minister Lord Hunt said this week.
A Department of Health survey found that almost 60% of hospitals now have good...
Unison Scotland has called for the effective abolition of the Private Finance Initiative in a manifesto launched ahead of May's elections for the country's Parliament.
It said: 'The time has come...
A Commons committee has accused Whitehall departments of repeated administrative failures and departmental indifference in their approach to the Parliamentary ombudsman.
A charity for the elderly has bitterly attacked a government U-turn on minimum environmental standards in care homes.
Ministers bowed to pressure from care-home owners and dropped key standards...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
The government will propose delaying the imposition of fines on social service departments that delay discharges from hospital, following a crucial defeat in the House of Lords.
On February 17,...
Health Secretary Alan Milburn has overturned more than a decade of NHS thinking by giving small hospitals a new lease of life.
Many local cottage hospitals have closed as the health service sought...
It's been a remarkably successful few weeks for London Mayor Ken Livingstone. His £2.7bn budget for 2003/04 was passed with surprisingly little opposition, while his controversial £5 congestion...
The government has stepped up its drive to recruit more nurses, doctors and health professionals by announcing that an additional £3.4bn is to be invested in 8,000 new training places in the NHS....
