NEWS & FEATURES

Barber: ''Cameron risks union conflict'' | Friday, March 12, 2010

A Conservative government would need to rethink its stance on public spending and the EU

Goats and tsars should be checked first | Thursday, March 11, 2010
The practice of bringing people from outside government into ministerial teams needs more
scrutiny

Labour MPs and Tory peer face jail sentence | Thursday, March 11, 2010
They are appearing in court under the Theft Act charged with false accounting with their
expenses

Brown says: ''I'm the WYSIWYG PM'' | Wednesday, March 10, 2010
We are weathering the storm but the waters are still choppy and there are bumps in the
road, he says

Brown ''insults public servants'' | Wednesday, March 10, 2010

The Senior Salaries Review Body has said that there is ''no justification for general pay
increases''

Clarke urges Darling to go out with bang | Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Shadow Business Secretary Ken Clarke says Chancellor should leave public life with an
austerity Budget

Staff morale is rock bottom at HMRC | Tuesday, March 09, 2010

The department has come last in a government staff survey, says Treasury Committee

£20bn of cuts ''needed by 2013/14'' | Tuesday, March 09, 2010

PricewaterhouseCoopers says the Treasury has its figures wrong and cuts and tax rises
might be necessary

Business funding scheme ''too risky'' | Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has wasted £338m on venture capital funds

Straw may reveal details on Venables | Monday, March 08, 2010

The Justice Secretary has admitted he's on the ''horns of a dilemma'' over the issue

Cut public finance deficit now, says CBI | Monday, March 08, 2010
Richard Lambert has told Chancellor Alistair Darling that he must balance the books by 2016

''Up to 270,000'' civil servants on strike | Monday, March 08, 2010

Two-day strike begins over changes to redundancy plans but Jowell insists it's a good deal

Features:
Facing a new task?
Writing exclusively for Public Servant, Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell explains how the
civil service is getting its house in order with a new set of rules in preparation for a general
election – and the real possibility of a hung parliament

Cameron: ''Say 'no' to dark depression of another five Brown years''

David Cameron has told the Conservative party's spring conference that he wants the UK to
feel like one big community, with a Tory government on the side of those who do the right
thing. And he spelt out the need to act sooner and quicker than Labour on the multi-billion
pound deficit

Government departments? If I had a magic wand I'd...

Boundaries between government departments must be broken down to allow much greater
crossover of ideas and resources, Will Day, chairman of the Sustainable Development
Commission tells Alison Thomas

EXCLUSIVE: Passionate and demanding or a bully?

People wrongly think anger is inappropriate in the workplace because of its links to violence.
But being angry and showing your anger is okay while being out of control is not, writes Blair
McPherson

http://www.publicservice.co.uk/news_features.asp

e­government news Friday 5th March  

Councils make poor progress online

Socitm says most councils are not yet good enough to go for self-service

Government accused of fixing NHS IT

Tories complain that the next government may be locked into NPfIT contracts

Non-emergency number comes back

Brown wants the 101 service to be nationwide, but who funds it is unclear
Parties urged to stick to privacy rules
Information Commissioner warns his new powers mean he will act if he must

Bin microchips are privacy intrusion

Privacy campaigners warn that more and more councils are adopting the chips

Too hard to say no to patient records

BMA says patients are not getting enough information about electronic records

Health records privacy risk is clear

Security expert supports London GPs' move to encourage patients to opt out

Push to get another 7.5 million online

New participation plan is published by government to reduce the digital divide

Features:

'Let's stop talking about the big, bad central computer'

Joseph Waller, managing director of XML Solutions, dispels some of the myths around the security of
centralised IT systems compared to preferred localised options

A plastic revolution offering flexible solutions

Paying for goods and services through the Government Procurement Card programme is already
recognised as efficient and effective. Jim Parkinson explains how a new project takes the scheme
forward to provide even greater benefits

http://www.publicservice.co.uk/topic_section.asp?topic=e-government