News

The former UK Border Agency (UKBA) was doomed to fail due to its sheer scale and constant media attention, its former chief executive Rob Whiteman has said.

This newspaper was established as Whitehall & Westminster World in 2004; and since I became editor six years ago, we’ve published about two million words on events in the civil service. There has been an awful lot to write about. The first coalition and the biggest recession in decades have presented huge policy challenges; sweeping budget cuts have prompted major organisational and personnel reforms; and changes in communications, working practices and service delivery have crystalised into civil service-wide agendas such as digital by default and open data. 

Sir Jonathan Stephens has moved to the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) to take up his new job as permanent secretary. 

Civil service job cuts and hikes in employees’ pension contributions saved the government almost £4.7bn during 2013-14 – providing a third of its overall efficiency savings and showing a rise of £1.3bn on 2012-13, according to new figures.

The Civil Service Competency Framework should be updated to require all staff to have minimum skills in critical thinking, quantitative analysis and digital skills, according to think tank Policy Exchange.

Three top civil servants have written to Public Accounts Committee chairwoman Margaret Hodge, strongly rejecting calls made by her committee for the centre of government to take a stronger lead.

 

The international trade treaties currently being negotiated between the USA and EU and around the Pacific area threaten the kind of bail-outs that have rescued Greece, Ireland, Portugal and other EU countries, according to Ngaire Woods, dean of the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University.

When you don’t have the time to go on long holidays, planning the perfect weekend get-away becomes of crucial importance: the ideal spot should be far away, but easy to reach; warm, but not too hot; big enough to be entertaining, but not overwhelmingly; and affordable, without being dangerously deprived.

The head of Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government is a fan of the British civil service – but it’s being battered by some heavyweight global forces, she says, and must learn a new fighting style. Matt Ross meets her

An inquiry needs to be held into the political process and the flaws in our system of government, two former cabinet secretaries have told Civil Service World. Their call comes after some politicians and other key figures have called for an inquiry into the future of the civil service.

In recent times, new delivery challenges and rising tensions between officials and politicians have led to calls for an inquiry into the civil service. Joshua Chambers asks how Whitehall can ensure it has the right tools for the job 

Once small and cohesive, today’s cities, including those in the UK, have become large and complex entities. In fact, London, despite being the smallest region in terms of area, occupying 1,600 square kilometres (sq km), less than 1% of the total area of the UK, has a population of over 8 million. This is a larger population today than all but the top four countries at the turn of the last century. So, with this being the case, how can governments maintain meaningful engagement with citizens, businesses, employees and other agencies?

The international development department does great work, says Diana Good – but must improve staff training in order to get better still

The Public Accounts Committee has warned of “evident risks” arising from the scale and pace of planned reforms to the probation system. 

John Pullinger, the incoming chief executive of the UK Statistics Authority, has warned that the poor use of data and targets risks “skewing the way we understand the world” rather than improving it.

Marks & Spencer chair Robert Swannell (pictured) has been made chair of the Advisory Board of the Shareholder Executive. Swannell has been a non-executive director there since January 2014, and will take up the new role in September.

CSW reviews Olivelli

Once, civil servants hacked away at unfashionable railways in favour of cars and aeroplanes – but now trains are once again seen as transports of the future. Joshua Chambers meets High Speed 2 chief executive Alison Munro

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency is a full-blown and unapologetic regulator in an era of deregulation. Winnie Agbonlahor hears its chief executive, Dr Ian Hudson, explain the value of its work

Garden cities have long been a fertile idea in public policy. First planned over a century ago, they flowered in Hertfordshire in the ‘20s – and now this perennial concept is set to bear fruit once again. Colin Marrs reports

The government should conduct a comprehensive review of its interventions in Afghanistan in 2001, the Commons’ Defence Committee said in a report on Tuesday. This should encompass not just military operations, but all the UK’s work under the NATO and UN missions.

NHS Property Services was set up as a limited company to manage the NHS property portfolio without a formal business case being produced to support that decision, the National Audit Office has found in a report published this month.

Politicians needs to stop unfairly criticising civil servants and start appreciating their work, Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA trade union, has said today. 

Departments need more flexibility on pay so that civil service organisations don’t feel the need for “bureaucratic reorganisations” designed to escape pay controls and enable them to recruit skilled staff, the Public Accounts Committee has said.