Finance

“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

MP Meg Hillier tells CSW that public confidence in the way HM Revenue and Customs reaches settlement deals with large corporations will be an issue until there is greater transparency

Transport department has improved its ability to let rail franchises, MPs say, but still lacks the capability to manage them, and does not have a “coherent strategic vision” for the rail system

HMRC chief executive Dame Lin Homer has told members of the Public Accounts Committee that civil servants should be proud of progress in tackling tax avoidance on the part of large companies

Report by the National Audit Office lays bare the problems facing flagship mutual - but Cabinet Office says it has taken steps to turn the situation around. Unions meanwhile welcomed the spending watchdog's findings