Wendy Thomson's Office of Public Service Reform is to carry out a review of the willingness of government departments to let councils enjoy the new autonomy Stephen Byers promised them in his recent...
Commons leader Robin Cook and Lord Irvine, the lord chancellor, are at loggerheads over the reform of the House of Lords, according to Whitehall sources.
The government has given nurses renewed hope of higher wages and more flexible working hours after it revealed that the NHS had reached its target of recruiting an extra 20,000 nurses three years...
The government this week unveiled plans to pilot electronic voting across England and Wales but the proposals were immediately called into question by a report highlighting the potential for fraud...
The government is considering a radical change to the structure of the Local Government Pension Scheme as it seeks to reduce the rising cost of contributions from the public purse.
Local government employers are preparing themselves for the worst pay dispute 'in a decade' after negotiations with trade unions broke up without agreement this week.
Boxing fans denied the prospect of a Lennox Lewis/Mike Tyson match-up would have been well advised to turn their attentions to Cardiff last weekend, as the government and unions squared up to each...
The NHS is investing in the healing power of poesy. The organisers of Poems for the Waiting Room hope to inject some humanity into the service by soothing patients with sonnets and displaying...
Meetings of the Northern Ireland Assembly have been cut and key legislation postponed because of 'creeping inertia' in the power-sharing executive, say Stormont sources.
Housing associations will be able to apply for a share of a £300m renewal fund under a programme announced this week by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Bank of Scotland.
Birmingham City Council's leader, Sir Albert Bore, will be elected president of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) next week, Public Finance has learnt.
A cash-strapped local authority has denied it is sending its senior managers on an awayday simply to indulge in yoga, meditation and water aerobics. Isle of Wight Council insists it is trying to...
As many as 2 million bus journeys will be scrapped in the new financial year unless central government makes a cash injection of £10m, local authority transport officials have warned.
One of Labour's flagship public-private partnership companies may be forced to pay compensation to the government after the failure of a high-profile web project for the Public Records Office.
Senior backbench MPs have condemned the Department for Culture, Media and Sport for secrecy and obfuscation over its handling of the crisis-ridden Millennium Dome project.
Industrial action by tax officials is threatening to throw the Inland Revenue into chaos as the deadline for 9 million self-assessment tax returns passes this week
Senior mandarins are increasingly confident of heading off the unwelcome spectre of a business leader being imposed as civil service chief when Sir Richard Wilson retires in August.
Agriculture Secretary Margaret Beckett will try to convince angry farmers this week that government proposals for wholesale change are the only way ahead for an industry that is in freefall.
The Local Government Association has vowed to 'fight on' in its battle to win more resources after the government published its 'disappointing' final finance settlement for local government.
Health Secretary Alan Milburn this week hammered home the prime minister's backing for NHS workers, claiming that staff, patients and the government were on the same side.
