Whitehall spent at least £275 million in one year on staff training, although the true cost was likely to be 'significantly' higher, a spending watchdog has warned... more
Consumer law enforcement is "significantly" under-equipped to tackle an estimated £6.6 billion annual cost to Britain of "unfair trading" including cold-calling by fraudsters and the activities of cowboy tradespeople, according to a report... more
Government foreign aid chiefs must do more to root out potential fraud as growing amounts of taxpayers' cash is directed to corruption-prone countries, a spending watchdog said... more
A critical report from the National Audit Office this week on 2012 building progress reflects rising public anxiety as the Olympic Delivery Authority pants towards the July finish line, when hand-over to the organisers is due... more
British businesses typically have to comply with 60 different regulations governed by a range of official bodies, many breaching the rules because they do not know which regulations apply to them, according to a new report... more
Department for Work and Pensions not doing enough to stem losses totalling £1.1 billion a year caused by benefit recipients making errors in their claims... more
National Audit Office says for the first time that taxpayers will probably not have to pay out on the guarantees it gave British banks to get them through the financial crisis... more
Young offenders who receive more serious community or custodial sentences remain as likely to offend again as they were 10 years ago, costing the economy up to £11 billion last year, figures show... more
Taxpayers will pay an extra £500 million to £1 billion over the coming 30 years because of the high financing costs of infrastructure contracts under the Private Finance Initiative signed by the Labour government during the credit crisis... more
Labour spent more than £780 million on reorganising government departments over the past five years despite producing no tangible benefits for taxpayers... more
The pensions safety net is praised for the way it has weathered the financial crisis, despite the size of its deficit more than doubling during the past year... more
A senior London venture capitalist hit back after a damning National Audit Office report claimed that taxpayers have lost money on most state-backed investments since the start of the decade... more
Energy analysis: Did you know this winter’s household energy consumer has never had it so good? Ask Steve Holliday, chief executive of the National Grid... more
Afternoon:
8°c
