The running costs of the BBC’s prestigious new headquarters at Broadcasting House are almost three-times as high as for other comparable buildings in the UK, the Whitehall spending watchdog has disclosed.

A UK government-commissioned inquiry into the sale of Royal Mail Group will call for changes to the way initial public offerings are managed in London, according to a sources.

The British Government is today inviting expressions of interest from bidders for the UK’s 40% stake in the Eurostar rail service.

Confidence in the two new financial services regulators will be at risk unless more is done to attract and retain staff, the public spending watchdog has warned.

Former BBC director general Mark Thompson says a failed digital media initiative at the broadcaster, which resulted in a loss of about £100m (about €120.5m), deteriorated under his watch.

ChildLine has announced plans to visit every primary school across the UK once every two years to talk to children about abuse.

Senior managers at the BBC were paid £1.4m (€1.65m) more than their contracts demanded in pay-offs over a three-year period, according to a new report.

The public spending watchdog is to investigate BBC severance packages after it emerged almost 200 senior managers received pay-offs of more than £100,000 (€122,137) each in the past three years.

International experts have told the Irish Government that a radioactive leak at the Sellafield nuclear site would cause no observable health effects in the country.

Up to 50,000 migrants may have used flaws in the student visa system to come to the UK for work in its first year, the country's public spending watchdog said today.

Up to 181,000 migrants who should have gone home over the past two years alone could still be in the UK illegally, figures showed today.

UK banking stocks slipped into the red today as the full level of public sector support for the financial sector was revealed.

Another £13bn (€15bn) in British Government borrowing last month sent total debt soaring to a record 56.6% of UK output, official figures revealed today.

Nationalised UK bank Northern Rock was allowed to lend £800m (€851.3m) in high-risk mortgages for six months after being placed on life-support with billions from the British taxpayer, the UK's public spending watchdog has said.

The National Audit office today blamed the European Commission and the UK government for lax controls on EU spending after Europe’s financial watchdog refused to clear the accounts for the 13th year running.

The bosses who made fortunes from the privatisation of defence research firm Qinetiq announced plans today to axe 400 jobs from the business.

CONSERVATIVES yesterday accused Alistair Darling of failing to tell “the whole truth” about the loss of confidential child benefit data, and demanded an emergency statement from the Chancellor.

The British taxpayer could have gained “tens of millions” more from the privatisation of UK defence research firm QinetiQ, the National Audit Office (NAO) said today.

COMPUTER disks holding sensitive personal data on 25 million people and 7.25 million families have gone missing, British Chancellor Alistair Darling has admitted to MPs.

THE agency set up in Britain to confiscate criminals’ cash and luxury assets was condemned as a ‘mess’ yesterday.

Production-line medicine is to blame for rising rates of the deadly MRSA superbug infection in the North’s acute hospitals, according to research published today.

PALACE accountants insisted the Queen and the royal family were value for money yesterday, costing each person in Britain 61p (€0.92) a year.

A British government watchdog is to investigate whether the abolition of the 192 directory enquiries service has been worthwhile for consumers.

Britsh government plans to improve the efficiency of public services will encourage only cosmetic change and will fail to stamp out poor practices, a business group said today.

BRITISH Prime Minster Tony Blair vowed last night to rid Britain’s immigration system of abuse after an emergency summit at Downing Street.

Warnings over future liabilities at the nuclear generator British Energy were not properly heeded by a British government department, according to a report out today.

Investor uncertainty pushed stocks lower on Wall Street today in volatile trading, with networker Cisco Systems’ tentative spending outlook hitting technology shares hard.

A major report into the strife-torn Northern Ireland Hospice was due to be delivered today.

Britain’s spending watchdog voiced concern over financial management practices in Brussels today after auditors declined for the eighth year in succession to pass the European Union’s accounts as reliable.

AN inquiry was launched yesterday after an RAF jet was shot down by US “friendly fire” in the Gulf.

British MPs investigating the troubled project to build a new national stadium at Wembley were today publishing what was expected to be a highly critical report.

More than half the petrol stations in Northern Ireland are selling smuggled fuel, according to Britain's National Audit Office.