Finance

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.

An official responsible for an IT contracting error which cost the Ministry of Defence (MoD) £70m is no longer working for the department, its permanent secretary Jon Thompson told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on 16 June​.

The Education Funding Agency (EFA) needs to get “to grips with effective oversight to improve public confidence in the system,” the Public Accounts Committee warned in a report.

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has committed to spending up to £10bn on the government’s Help to Buy scheme without establishing whether it represents the most effective way of using taxpayers’ money, the Public Accounts Committee have said in a report published on 18 July.

The National Audit Office helped government to achieve £1.1bn of savings in 2014-14, according to its annual report published this week, but missed its own targets to complete 40% of its studies in six months and 85% within nine months – completing just 35% and 74% of reports in the respective time limits.

The High Speed 2 company needs to be given greater freedoms from Treasury restrictions so that it can attract the best project managers and construction workers, Alison Munro, chief executive of the project, has told Civil Service World.