News

Soon after the 2010 election, the coalition beefed up departmental boards and recruited a set of powerful non-executive directors. Joshua Chambers meets Lord Browne, the ‘lead NED’ reforming Whitehall from the inside

The government’s chief information officer, Andy Nelson, has accepted charges made in a new report on the government’s ICT strategy, which says key targets in the document are likely to be missed.

Some 80 per cent of civil servants believe that replacing IT systems will be an important step on the way to producing ‘more for less’, a CSW survey has found.

The FDA Union has pledged to fight any proposals that threaten the political neutrality of the civil service.

The relationship between ministers and the civil service must improve and both groups’ accountability must be clarified, Dame Gillian Morgan, the retiring permanent secretary of the Welsh Assembly Government, has told CSW.

A senior Foreign Office official has warned that the UK’s economic standing in the world could be damaged if the British public ever voted to leave the European Union.

Sir Mark Walport is to become the government’s next chief scientific adviser in April 2013, it has been announced. He was chosen via an open competition, and replaces Sir John Beddington.

The civil servant leading the G-Cloud purchasing programme has admitted that more could be done to promote the benefits of the facility to officials across government.

HMRC should introduce a deliberate error into the taxation system so that it overclaims taxes and has to repay them at the end of the year, Dr David Halpern, the head of the government’s Behavioural Insights Team, has suggested.

Does the quality of your work make your time more valuable than that of your peers? Four top officials gave their thoughts on performance-related pay during a panel discussion. Suzannah Brecknell was listening

In an increasingly open society, even MI6 has to change the way it operates – and at Civil Service Live, the Secret Intelligence Service’s head Sir John Sawers made a rare public appearance. Joshua Chambers reports

It's a Civil Service Live tradition that after we’ve finished on the last day, the whole team heads across the road to Miran Masala for a celebratory curry.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs wants to establish a commercial joint venture to run its science lab in York, the department’s permanent secretary Bronwyn Hill said at Civil Service Live last week.

Reforms designed to hasten procurements are being undermined by delays in securing spending approval from the centre, a Home Office official has warned.

The fitting of small-scale renewable energy generation equipment on the government estate could help cut costs and reduce CO2 emissions. But Nick Schoon finds that nobody is leading on this potentially important agenda

Following their January debut, the civil service’s leading duo are taking the stage again – this time to champion the Civil Service Reform Plan. Matt Ross asks about politicisation, centralisation, and unwelcome press attention

Parliamentary efforts to hold government more closely to account include reforming how British intelligence agencies are overseen. Joshua Chambers reports on a committee walking the line between light and shade

Squeezed between declining rainfall and a growing population, water supply is a growing environmental challenge. Stuart Watson examines how departments can increase their water-efficiency before supplies dry up

The former chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee, Sir Richard Mottram, has come out against the idea that the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) could hold public hearings with the heads of Britain’s intelligence agencies.

Good ideas on policymaking meet risky ones on accountability

Central departments must communicate better with councils, the National Audit Office (NAO) has said in a report published today.