Finance

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