The review presents Alex Salmond, the Scottish first minister, with a formidable political problem. Photograph: Murdo Macleod Up to 50,000 public sector jobs could be lost and universal benefits such as free care for the elderly could be either cut or scrapped because of dramatic reductions in public spending in Scotland, an official review has [...]

Iain Duncan Smith has to convince a sceptical Treasury he can reduce fraud and error in an unwieldy tax credit system. Photograph: Anthony Devlin/PA Income support and housing benefit could be combined with the tax credit system as part of a range of proposals released tomorrow by Iain Duncan Smith to cut the welfare budget [...]

The FSA said ex-Northern Rock finance director David Jones lacked integrity. Photograph: AFP/Getty The former finance director of Northern Rock, David Jones, today hit out against the Financial Services Authority as he was handed a life-time ban and fined £320,000 for allowing the bank to report mortgage arrears figures that were lower than they should [...]

EU regulations were to blame for waste, says quango chief. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian The education secretary, Michael Gove, ignored advice to check an error-strewn list of cancelled school building projects before it was published, a quango chief claimed today. Tim Byles, chief executive of a quango responsible for an axed £55bn initiative [...]