The UK public finances: ready for recession? / Institute for Fiscal Studies, 31 October 2008
PDF - http://www.ifs.org.uk/bns/bn79.pdf
IFS Briefing Notes, BN79
"As the UK economy begins to shrink for the first time in 16 years, the two main political parties have been arguing over whether the public finances are stronger or weaker now than they were at the outset of the last recession in 1990 and when Labour came to power in 1997. This note looks at a couple of key indicators of the health of the public finances in historical and international perspective to assess this."

Is short-termism holding back public sector outsourcing? / silicon.com, 20 August 2008
http://www.silicon.com/publicsector/0,3800010403,39273472,00.htm
"Public sector outsourcing may have doubled over the past 10 years to £80bn. But that apparently healthy growth masks some fundamental issues with procurement, says Martyn Hart."

Managing Financial Resources to Deliver Better Public Services: HC 519, Forty-third Report of Session 2007-08: Report, Together with Formal Minutes, Oral and Written Evidence / TSO, 9 September 2008
PDF - http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmpubacc/519/519.pdf

Departments 'lack finance skills' / BBC, 9 September 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7604557.stm
"The report says more decisions need to be based on financial assessments
Government departments controlling more than £550bn of public money do not have enough staff with good finance skills, a committee of MPs has said. Financial directors have increased but there is a "general lack" of skills among other staff, they said. Only 20% of departments based policy decisions on a "thorough" financial assessment, they added in a report."

Public Accounts Committee, Report 43 Managing financial resources to deliver better public services, HC 519
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmpubacc/519/519.pdf

HM Treasury: Making changes in operational PFI projects: Thirty–sixth Report of
Session 2007–08: Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence / TSO, 2 September 2008
PDF - http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmpubacc/332/332.pdf
HC 332

Questions and Answers on EU's plan for Green Public Procurement / Public Technology, 17 Jul 2008

http://www.publictechnology.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=16653
"Green Public Procurement is the process by which public authorities seek to reduce the environmental impact of the goods and services that they buy. The European Commission is issuing a Communication on Green Public Procurement as part of the package of measures in the Sustainable Production and Consumption and Sustainable Industrial Policy Action Plan. The aim is to foster a voluntary framework to ensure the procurement of goods and services that have the least impact on the environment throughout their whole life cycle. The Communication will cover all public procurement procedures. The goal is to use GPP to stimulate innovation in environmental technologies, products and services. "

[USA] Misuse of Government Purchase Cards / Congressional Research Service, 30 July 2008
PDF - http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/RL34602_20080730.pdf
"Since the mid-1990s, the use of government purchase cards has expanded at a rapid rate. Spurred by legislative and regulatory reforms designed to increase the use of purchase cards for small acquisitions, the dollar volume of government purchase card transactions grew from $527 million in FY1993, to $18.7 billion in FY2007. While the use of purchase cards has been credited with reducing administrative costs, audits of agency purchase card programs have found varying degrees of waste, fraud, and abuse..."

IT a central driver for Government's new 'Operational Efficiency Programme'/ Public Technology, 4 July 2008

http://www.publictechnology.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=16488

"Chief Secretary at HM Treasury Yvette Cooper yesterday launched the Operational Efficiency Programme. The programme forms a key part of the Government's drive to achieve greater efficiency savings across public spending, with the potential to deliver billions of pounds of savings."

Public sector procurement survey reveals room for improvement/ Public Technology, 1 July 2008
http://www.publictechnology.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=16421

"BravoSolution yesterday announced results of a survey of public sector procurement professionals, which revealed they are struggling to implement best practice solutions due to lack of organisational support, but are aware of their poor spend visibility, room for improvement in process efficiency, and need to increase adoption of ‘green’ procurement practices. Bravosolution investigated the views of 107 procurement professionals, nearly half of whom are from medium-to-large organisations (500+ staff) across many specialisations of public sector, including central and local government, healthcare and education."

National Evaluation of Local Public Service Agreements: The impact of local public service agreeement targets - Multivariate analysis /Communities and Local Government,21 July 2008

http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/localgovernment/pdf/25.pdf

"This report summarises research that found that local public service agreements can be effective in driving improvements in services with targeted indicators, especially during and after the final year of the agreement period."

Charles Clarke calls for more upfront fees for public services / Guardian, 17 July 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jul/17/health.education?gusrc=rss&feed=uknews
Andrew Sparrow
"Taxpayers should be asked to pay directly for a wider range of public services, the former cabinet minister Charles Clarke suggested today. Clarke said that introducing more "user charges" would be "very politically controversial" but could help public services to improve."
Achieving the potential: PDF - http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Politics/documents/2008/07/17/CharlesClarkedoc.pdf

The Cost of crime / Taxpayers Alliance, 4 July 2008
PDF - http://tpa.typepad.com/home/files/the_cost_of_crime.pdf
Matthew Sinclair and Corin Taylor

Buy and make a difference: how to address social issues in public procurement / Office of Government Commerce, June 2008
PDF - http://www.ogc.gov.uk/documents/Social_Issues_in_Public_Procurement.pdf
"Social issues should be a first thought, not an afterthought. Improving the lives and work prospects of citizens will create equality of opportunity for all, and work towards a world-class skills base by 2020. The very principle of buying on a value for money basis is about taking account of the whole life cost and wider factors including social considerations, not just about buying the cheapest.”

UK a world leader in outsourced public services, says independent review / Public Technology, 11 July 2008
http://www.publictechnology.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=16586
"The contribution of outsourced public services to the UK economy has grown 130% since 1995 and now represents the most developed public service industry in the world, according to a report on the Review of the Public Services Industry published yesterday. The industry has grown so significantly over the past twelve years that it is now second in size only to the US, and with a turnover of £79 billion contributes more to the UK economy than key industries such as communications and electricity, gas and water supply."
Public services industry review: PDF - http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file46965.pdf
Public services industry in the UK: PDF - http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file46938.pdf
The market for public services: international comparisons: PDF - http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file46939.pdf

Cost of crime '£275 per person' / BBC, 4 July 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7489877.stm
"Funding the police to tackle recorded crime costs £275 per person a year, according to a lobby group report. The Taxpayers' Alliance put the cost at £15bn annually for forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The campaign group, which used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain crime data from the police, called for red tape and targets to be reduced."
The cost of crime: PDF - http://tpa.typepad.com/home/files/the_cost_of_crime.pdf

Credit crunch could cause rise in domestic abuse / 24dash.com, 23 June 2008
http://www.24dash.com/news/Housing/2008-06-23-Credit-crunch-could-cause-rise-in-domestic-abuse
Alexine
"Financial anxiety caused by the credit crunch is expected to have a big impact on levels of domestic abuse over the coming months. A domestic abuse worker in Tunbridge Wells fears more families will be affected by the crime, which largely goes unreported. Financial stress is just one of the causes of abuse but it is feared that the money problems many people will face as a result of the credit crunch could lead to more abusive behaviour."

Government hires IT troubleshooter / Financial Times, 22 June 2008
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/be0c62be-409f-11dd-bd48-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1
Jim Pickard and Nicholas Timmins
"The former chief executive of Logica has been hired by the Treasury in an attempt to overturn the government’s sometimes disastrous track record on computer projects. Martin Read, who was forced out of the IT services company after a boardroom spat in May 2007, will carry out a review of the public sector’s £13bn annual spending on computer schemes."

OGC publishes new model contract for public sector ICT procurement / OGC, 18 June 2008
http://www.ogc.gov.uk/About_OGC_news_8447.asp
The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) has announced a new version of the free Information Communication Technology (ICT) model contract and associated guidance. The new model contract aims to help achieve better outcomes for projects with complex ICT procurements, while at the same time saving time and money. It has been produced in conjunction with the delivery partner of the contract, Partnerships UK (PUK), and follows consultation with industry body Intellect, the legal profession and key government stakeholders.

The new version addresses a number of issues, including refinement of the financial distress provisions, and further guidance on supply chain rights and benchmarking. It also introduces a number of drafting improvements to revise and clarify clauses that have commonly caused undue delays to negotiations.

We are in the worst financial crisis since Depression, says IMF http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/apr/10/useconomy.subprimecrisis?gusrc=rss&feed=politics Guardian, Wed, Apr 9 2008

"The US mortgage crisis has spiralled into "the largest financial shock since the Great Depression" and there is a one-in-four chance that it will cause a full-blown global recession, the International Monetary Fund warned yesterday.

As finance ministers and central bankers arrived in Washington to discuss ways of tackling the crisis, the IMF warned, in its twice-yearly World Economic Outlook, that governments might be forced to step in with more public bailouts of troubled banks and cash-strapped homeowners before the crisis was over."

Budget 2008 - Stability and Opportunity: Building a Strong, Sustainable Future / TSO, 12 March 2008
PDF - http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/hc0708/hc03/0388/0388.pdf
HC 388