PLC Public Sector reports:
In last week’s post, we set out the government’s proposals to open up details of local government spending, and highlighted some unanswered questions about how these proposals will be implemented.
We called on the Secretary of State for Communties and Local Government, Eric Pickles, to act quickly to answer these questions, and this week he has responded by publishing initial details of how the proposals will be implemented.
PLC Public Sector reports:
On 28 May 2010, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) published details of the 1,000 data security breaches that have now been notified to it. In this post, we look at any lessons to be learnt from this data.
PLC Public Sector reports:
Aside from the promised frontal assault on the national deficit, probably the most frequent commitment being made by the new government, and in particular David Cameron, is to provide greater transparency to the general public about the cost and success (or failure) of government.
In his first podcast since becoming prime minister, he promised “to rip off [the] cloak of secrecy” and on 1 June 2010, we saw the first example of this drive, with the much-reported publication of a list that showed there are a lot of people in central government who earn quite a lot of money. Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude promises that this is “just the start of what we plan to do” and we can expect to see details of hospital infection rates and government spending (via opening up the, apparently somewhat unwieldy, COINS database) in the coming days.
Of more interest to local government, and the subject to a lower news profile, is likely to be the contents of a letter sent by David Cameron on 31 May 2010 to all central government departments which outlined what this new drive is likely to mean in practice.
PLC Public Sector reports:
Make sure that you have not missed a key development in your area of the law by reviewing our latest list of recommended actions.
PLC Public Sector reports:
Public procurement litigation, as we often state, is on the rise. Rarely a week goes by without a new case highlighting an issue that impacts on how public procurement processes should be run. Taking account of these issues is of huge importance, with the risk that legal proceedings could stop an award process, potentially costing large sums of money and impacting on service delivery. However it is important that the focus on the process does not lead to the substance of any public procurement – the contract – being neglected.
In this post, we highlight two recent cases that may not necessarily have had the highest profile in the public sector but from which important lessons can be learnt.
Make sure that you have not missed a key development in your area of the law by reviewing our latest list of recommended actions.
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PLC Public Sector reports:
While the focus of much of the country has been on the general election campaign and talk of coalition deals, developments in public procurement law and policy have continued to come thick and fast in the last 6 weeks.
In this post we review these developments highlighting the key issues for those who fear that something may have slipped off their radar amid all the excited talk of “the New Politics”.
Make sure that you have not missed a key development in your area of the law by reviewing our latest list of recommended actions.
The 2010 elections will be remembered not only for the cliff-hanging result of the Parliamentary elections but also for the scenes of chaos that took place at some of the country’s polling stations on election night as long queues meant many voters were excluded from exercising their right to vote as returning officers obeyed election rules and turned people away.
PLC Public Sector reports:
Make sure that you have not missed a key development in your area of the law by reviewing our latest list of recommended actions. Continue reading