Fraud, Error Debt & Grants

Special report: With just days to go until the EU referendum, civil servants will soon have more on their plates – whichever way the nation votes. Colin Marrs speaks to former senior officials and top civil service experts about the challenges a Brexit decision would pose for Whitehall, and why the alternative won’t necessarily mean "business as usual"

National Audit Office updates MPs on HMRC's progress to replace Aspire

National Audit Office investigation exposes trail of failings over £18.8m-a-year contract which saw consultancy make "incorrect and misleading representations" on overheads

Think tank praises updated blueprint for public-sector procurement but warns new clause must be used

Independent recruitment regulator says campaign group’s league table was factually wrong and misdirected

Whitehall's HR directors asked to collect data on public interest concerns for the first time – with the majority of officials choosing to come forward anonymously

Audited accounts of more than 5,500 public sector organisations are published after a delay – but the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants warns this "rich source" of data could get buried

Public Accounts Committee says system is “bedevilled by long standing poor performance” and urges the Ministry of Justice to do more to understand likely impact of cutting resources

Committee chairman Bernard Jenkin tells CSW it "should not be necessary to badger ministers and officials into doing the right thing", after Leave campaigners pushed to ensure pro-EU websites were not promoted in the final run-up to the referendum

Online verification service passes service assessment, as Janet Hughes vows to listen and learn as scheme is introduced across departments

Report by MPs on the justice committee warns that prison safety "has deteriorated further and continues to do so"

Just-published guide from the public spending watchdog says government needs sustained effort to bring commercial and contracting work up to scratch

Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee chair Bernard Jenkin says legislation may be needed to make non-executive directors brought into government feel less disposable

Home Office chief points out that enforcement rate for confiscation orders is increasing, even as overall debt pile grows, while Derbyshire police chief Mick Creedon points the finger at legacy of “inflated” targets

The Public Accounts Committee wants the most senior civil servants to play a greater role in approving major projects, and to publish their assessments of whether policies offer value for money

PAC urges stronger cross-government effort to clamp down on fines incurred for errors in the way government spends EU funds

Cabinet Office minister says distributed ledgers could offer a "better way" of monitoring the distribution of government cash

Former chief of defence materiel, who left the civil service at the end of 2015, to carry out progress review for the MoD on equipment buying

Open data organisation co-founded by Sir Tim Berners-Lee says proposed model for the privately-owned Land Registry "appears very similar to historic examples of long-term outsourcing deals and risks repeating the same mistakes"

Online payments firm Stripe – which handles payments for Kickstarter – among those chosen in revamped approach to government merchant services

Mismatch between school year used by academies and DfE's own accounting period means parliament cannot properly hold the department to account, says the NAO

New report calls on government to give better detail on city region power structures and spending

MPs demand tax agency improves “woefully inadequate” prosecutions record and says it should publish more straightforward details on the effectiveness of its work. But HMRC says it has been "relentless and strategic" in pursuing those who fail to pay their "fair share"

National Audit Office (NAO) report finds that each loan given out under the Department of Energy and Climate Change's Green Deal cost government £17,000, and flags poor use of evidence and testing when the scheme was designed