Energy efficiency in Whitehall has been boosted with a new environmentally friendly heating system. 23 government buildings, including Downing Street, get their heat from a community heating scheme. Meters in each building are used to calculate charges. Four new high pressure boilers have been installed in the original boiler room 17 metres below ground level. The exhaust gasses from the boilers are discharged to a waste heat boiler to reduce pollution. 

The gap between the better performing local education authorities and their schools, and the poorest performmers, is widening. Local Authority Performance Indicators 1997/98 published by the Audit Commission show that some of the poorest performing councils turned in worse results than the previous year. The overall performance improved slightly.
Many of the poor performers are in deprived areas, but there is no consistent relationship between deprivation and poor performance. 

Morley L R, Magnussen J
Applied Economics, (UK), Aug 1998 Vol 30 No 8
Start page: 1089. No of pages: 12
Compares public and private hospitals to find out if ownership has any influence on efficiency. Looks at the Norwegian public system and the Californian private system, where there are similar states of health but very different financing patterns.