Economics

Plans to end local authority reliance on Whitehall gather pace

 "Departmental efficiency review" will "help deliver a further £3.5 billion of savings from public spending" in 2019-20, says George Osborne

Chancellor pays tribute to "great public servant" – but SNP MPs jeer reference to "impartiality"

Live coverage and reaction as chancellor sets out the 2016 Budget, provided by our colleagues on PoliticsHome.com. CSW will be have the key Whitehall stories and reaction throughout the afternoon

Weaker growth and delayed sales of government assets expected to contribute to missed target

"The obvious efficiency savings have come through in the early period," says former head of the civil service – as chancellor prepares to outline £4bn of further spending cuts

Chancellor George Osborne picks "outstanding civil servant" for the top Treasury post

Spending watchdog questions the government’s claims on SME spending, and urges departments to make sure that initiatives to improve commercial capability do not undermine attempts to support small companies

"We fully appreciate that we will need to do better in the future," says DfE perm sec Chris Wormald, as switch to new accounting method delays parliamentary scrutiny of his department's finances

All Atos contracts worth more than £10m now under review after public accounts committee said the outsourcing firm had "acted solely with its own short term best interests in mind" on GP data service

Treasury committee chair Andrew Tryie warns of "lack of detailed explanation" of how HMRC's Making Tax Digital plans will play out

New Scottish agency will take on running of some payments from the DWP and will be “directly accountable” to Scottish ministers