Finance

Department points out that shift to include spending on war pensions and intelligence gathering falls within Nato guidelines

Macpherson says IDS's resignation over Personal Independence Payments was an "interesting, postmodern" decision

Troup faces media scrutiny over role at Simmons & Simmons – as HMRC points out his role "has never involved responsibility for operational activities or direct dealings with companies on their tax affairs"

HMRC asks for access to the Panama Papers offshore leaks and vows to "relentlessly pursue" wrongdoing – but tax expert Richard Murphy says department "just hasn’t got the resources"

Second perm sec to announce he is leaving the civil service after vying for top Treasury job

Proposals to make local government financially self-sufficient by 2020 must not be impacted by George Osborne's business-boosting measures, a lobby group has warned

Chancellor says: "I’ve made adjustments to my plans to make sure we are going to live within our means"

Plans to end local authority reliance on Whitehall gather pace

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

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

“Acute hospital trusts are at crisis point,” warns PAC chair Meg Hillier

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

Education secretary Nicky Morgan says consultation marks “biggest step towards fairer funding in over a decade”

Former PAC chair Margaret Hodge questions whether ministerial accountability system is fit for purpose and warns MPs are more interested in new policies than scrutinising spending. But her warnings over civil service capability are challenged by a senior Ministry of Defence offficial

“I love disruptive procurement,” says CCS’s commercial delivery director

"There are always ways to make government better, always ways to make sure that the taxes of people are better spent," says chancellor, against gloomy global economic backdrop

Pacac says government spends “considerable amounts of money” producing accounts even thought it "not clear that they are of any use to select committees, or to the public"

Lord Kerslake says it is “impossible to see why any fair person would want to remove this very basic service” - and vows to "sing the national anthem" if the government shelves plans to end automatic "check off" of fees from civil servants' pay packets

Public Accounts Committee criticises lack of transparency over HM Revenue and Customs' £130m, ten-year tax deal with Google – but says department has taken "a step in the right direction" in pledging reform of penalty regime

Overall block grant will be at least as high as it would have been under the Barnett Formula – while Scottish government gets extra borrowing powers

Treasury committee says 2014 intervention by then-chief secretary Danny Alexander “gives the appearance of a minister trying to lean on the OBR”

Leading health think-tank warns on state of NHS trust finances even after Treasury's Spending Review boost