Our chart this week is on public sector employment, the cost of which is one of the largest components of the Spending Review in a few weeks’ time.

The furlough and self-employed support schemes come to an end today, as does the VAT reduction for hospitality and tourism to 5%, which is increased to 12.5% tomorrow. ICAEW has produced a timeline for the schemes that remain.

The Department for Work & Pensions estimates that it underpaid 134,000 pensioners more than £1bn in State Pensions - almost £9,000 per pensioner.

The UK government has announced the biggest-ever round of support for its flagship renewable energy scheme.

What does the pandemic mean for attitudes to risk and for the social contract that has underpinned the free market?, asks ICAEW President David Matthews

19 November 2020: 8,600 pandemic-related contracts worth £18bn were entered into in the period up to 31 July 2020, but a lack of transparency in how they were awarded has given rise to serious concerns about how public money has been spent.

17 November 2020: Croydon Council has gone into section 114 ‘bankruptcy’ following years of overspending, losses on commercial investments and the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. What went wrong?

3 November 2020: The Cabinet Office has announced new guidance on procurement for government departments, executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies.

21 October 2020: Recent reports on the commercial activities of local councils in Wales and Spelthorne Borough Council’s £1bn commercial property bet highlight the pressures local authority finances are under.

16 September: The National Audit Office has issued a report on the £20m cost of exiting the failed Magnox contract to decommission nuclear research sites and power stations.

15 September: Making better use of public data could benefit the economy, public services and the quality of peoples’ lives – so can the UK Government’s long-awaited National Data Strategy deliver this? Alison Ring, Director for Public Sector at ICAEW examines the proposals.

1 July 2020: One of the legacies of the COVID-19 crisis could be a stronger push towards e-government around the world. Estonia is a case in point.

ICAEW engages with the Fabian Society and their pamphlet ‘Prizing the Public Pound’ on local audit and spending effectiveness in central government, in which they call for a future Labour government to reorganise, revitalise and expand public audit in England.

An ICAEW policy insight aimed at helping governments and parliaments understand how good balance sheet management can improve the overall management of the public finances.

The role of professional accountants is fundamentally about creating trust. Trust that numbers are correctly stated and that a true and fair account has been produced, showing what money has been raised and how that money has been used.

A decade after the corporate debt crisis, public debt is at an all-time high and continues to rise. The potential for a global public debt crisis should not be ignored. ICAEW shares policy insight.

In this publication, we explore the drivers for strong financial leadership and the skills and competences that, in our view, a strong finance leader should have.

ICAEW has a new addition to the better government series: a guide for stakeholders working with the UK Central Government Public Financial Management System.

Sustainable Public Finances: EU Perspectives. Synopsis of discussion on 8 November 2016

Summary of the new framework guidance document Building blocks to better PFM – A cash to accruals accounting toolkit.