Finance

Thirty three companies take the lion’s share of central government procurement spending, between them receiving roughly £10bn of Whitehall money each year. But who are they? Do they truly understand the public sector? And do civil servants trust them? Rebecca Sims-Robinson crunches the numbers.

Lord Kerslake tells the Financial Times pressure on other budgets could be made "more acute" by protection of defence spending

Labour to set out election manifesto as shadow chancellor Ed Balls vows 'no compromise' with SNP over deficit

Kate Collyer appointed to the new role of deputy chief economic adviser at the Competition and Markets Authority

David Cameron gave his personal assurance that defence spending would rise from 2015, according to Liam Fox’s former special adviser. 

Former NAO director Mark Babington joins Financial Reporting Council 

Nicholas Macpherson says economic and financial functions should both remain in the Treasury

Chancellor George Osborne has re-appointed two external members of the Bank of England’s finance committee

Michael Izza, chief executive of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), gives an outside perspective of the civil service

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) will look into the computer failure which caused chaos across UK airports last Friday

The Community Budgets scheme has taken another small step towards achieving change, finds Sarah Aston

The Department of Work and Pensions’ (DWP) decision to close the Independent Living Fund (ILF) for disabled people was ruled lawful by the High Court, on Monday 8 December. 

The chancellor of the exchequer’s final Autumn Statement of this Parliament provided an update on the government's economic plans. Our sister service, Dods Monitoring, analysed the Statement sector by sector. 

The government will continue to restrain public sector pay in the next Parliament, George Osborne announced in his Autumn Statement today. 

Chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne is due to give his Autumn Statement today (Wednesday 3 December) at 12:30pm. So what can be expected?

The Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ) Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act is on track to make savings but it is not clear whether the reforms have delivered better value for money, the National Audit Office (NAO) reported today.

The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) launched the Global Fraud Risk Register, its new global initiative for tackling fraud across the public sector.

The government should introduce five-year spending plans and independent assessments of its infrastructure plans, former cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell told an audience at the Royal Statistical Society last month. 

Finance professionals across government should “get on the front foot” and make sure they’re involved in the policymaking process, the government’s new director-general of public spending, Julian Kelly, has said.

HM Revenue and Customs will gain greater ability to clamp down on tax evaders following the signing of an international agreement on tax evasion at the Global Forum in Berlin today. 

Chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander yesterday confirmed government proposals to regulate redundancy payouts for highly paid administrators in the public sector. 

A six week government consultation published this week aims to strengthen the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) capacity to better deal with companies breaking the law over nuisance calls and texts. 

DWP are now facing an “escalating problem” with housing benefit error from both claimants and officials, according to National Audit Office (NAO).

The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) has announced plans to start recruiting for the roles of pensions ombudsman and deputy pensions ombudsman for 2015.