Martin Donnelly

Permanent Secretary of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Robert Devereux

Permanent Secretary of the Department for Work and Pensions

Bill Crothers

Chief Commercial Officer

Ursula Brennan

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice

Mike Bracken

Executive Director of Digital for the UK Government

Alex Aiken

Executive Director of Government Communications

John Manzoni

Chief Executive of the Civil Service

For the last five years, Civil Service World has rounded off December by publishing a set of articles written by permanent secretaries and other key figures. This year, Matt Ross finds perm secs focusing on skills, Scotland, global threats – and the creeping advance of Xmas

Sir Jeremy Heywood

Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service

Facing the coalition, the civil service’s labour movement is split between outright opposition and constructive engagement. Matt Ross examines the tensions between – and within – Whitehall’s unions. llustration by John Levers

How can you retain civil servants in 2015?

A recent CSW round table examined the potential of Big Data to improve outcomes and cut costs in our healthcare system. Colin Marrs reports. Photos by Paul Heartfield

The IPO's patent renewal service has been pinned as an exemplar for the GDS' digital transformation agenda. CSW takes a look at the service's journey from a paper-based process to a champion of digital change

TCS has a proven track record around the world in working with governments on fiscal and welfare efficiency. Here we go through three examples

Data held and harvested by government can be used to take chunks out of departments’ operating costs, Stuart Watson learned at a CSW round table. Pic: Paul Heartfield

Cornerstone research recently investigated what people look for – and more importantly, prioritise – when considering a career in the civil service. Here are some of the findings

The DWP now assesses 95% of new child maintenance cases accurately, the NAO has found

Peter Hennessy interviews former MI5 chief Eliza Manningham-Buller about the three decades she spent tackling the Soviet threat, the IRA and Islamist terrorism

New York City’s Department of Probation (NYCDOP) wished to carry out an IT re-engineering initiative to enable better collaboration with internal and external stakeholders. It, therefore, decided to implement a Reusable Case Management System (RCMS) that would be the pivot of its IT landscape. Clearly, the RCMS had to handle future growth of the agency and function alongside existing and planned systems.

Julian Kelly is the government’s first ever director-general of public spending and finance. He tells Winnie Agbonlahor about his plans for strengthening the profession

A monthly interview with people who've crossed organisational and sectoral boundaries to join a new working world.

The director of public prosecutions, Alison Saunders, started in the job just as phone hacking and sex abuse trials put her organisation under the media spotlight. She tells CSW about a turbulent first year leading the Crown Prosecution Service. Photo by Mark Weeks

The days of having a job for life are long gone. Research has indicated that on average people will have seven careers in their lifetime and whilst the need to move on to a fresh challenge isn’t surprising, are some organisations missing a trick? Research carried out by Cornerstone OnDemand across Europe found that over three quarters of organisations (77 percent) understand that internal recruitment is critical; however, 54 percent do less than a third of their recruitment from existing talent. So why the disconnect?

Philip Rutnam explains his love for this historic cultural meeting point