News

While America’s Californian rappers battle their East Coast rivals, transport chief Philip Rutnam has his own West Coast struggle: the effort to restore his department’s reputation after its rail franchise failure. Matt Ross meets him

The collapse of the West Coast Mainline franchising process won’t deter the Department for Transport (DfT) from taking necessary risks, the department’s permanent secretary has promised in an interview with CSW.

Most central government departments will have to cut spending by two per cent over the next two years in order to fund a £2.5bn investment in infrastructure, it has been reported.

The Home Office has today been warned it must not repeat mistakes made at last November’s police and crime commissioner (PCC) election, such as delaying the release of crucial election rules, which contributed to a turnout of just 15 per cent.

The government wants us to have more choice in public services. But as David Boyle explains to Jess Bowie, in reality there are numerous obstacles stopping disadvantaged people from choosing their preferred service provider

Civil servants across the Department of Health (DH) will be sent on regular work placements at hospitals, care homes and charities, in a bid to give them frontline experience of the NHS.

The Civil Service Commission can help civil servants flag complaints about breaches of the Civil Service Code. First civil service commissioner, Sir David Normington, explains how his organisation has just launched an 'Open Week' to encourage civil servants to ask questions and engage with them:

Department of Work and Pensions chief information officer Andy Nelson has suggested that three-year transition plans could be introduced to help departments move onto central purchasing frameworks.

While the overall story of women in the civil service is a positive one, the number of female permanent secretaries has fallen dramatically in the last two years. Should we be concerned? Suzannah Brecknell investigates.

Former cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell used the second part of his Radio 4 documentary on Tuesday, In Defence of Bureaucracy, to call for the retention of an impartial civil service, and to argue that the “occasionally intemperate tone” taken by Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude has “not helped” the “unusually strained” relationship between ministers and civil servants.

The PCS union has called a three-month programme of industrial action, starting with a one-day strike on Budget day: 20 March.

Scotland narrowly missed its first annual target for carbon emission reductions, falling short by just two per cent due to exceptionally cold winter months, according to the Committee on Climate Change (CCC).

The government is not properly supporting technology entrepreneurs, the Commons’ Science and Technology Committee has warned.

The National Security Council has improved Whitehall’s planning and coordination. But it’s been busiest where the bullets have been flying, and there are doubts over its scrutiny of less obvious dangers. Stuart Watson reports.

Whitehall experts have backed former cabinet secretary Lord Butler in calling for all departments to appoint historical advisers, CSW can reveal.

Ministers & officials must also put those lessons into practice.

On February 21, a seminar was held in the Foreign Office to mark the publication of a book by the head of the FCO Historical Section, Gill Bennett, called ‘Six Moments of Crisis’. The book discusses six major foreign policy decisions taken since the Second World War. These were the decision to send British troops to Korea in 1950; the Suez invasion; the first application to join the European Economic Community; the withdrawal of British forces from East of Suez; the expulsion of 109 Soviet diplomats; and the sending of the Task Force to recover the Falklands.

Janet Williams is a personal adviser in the Department for Work and Pensions, and winner of the Head of the Civil Service's Award. CSW spoke with her to find out why she won.

A nurse caring for patients in the community warns that fast-growing workloads are ratcheting up the pressure on her hard-pressed team. Winnie Agbonlahor reports.

The number of people volunteering in England has increased remarkably. The new Community Life Survey shows 30 per cent volunteered at least once a month in 2012, compared to 25 per cent in 2010-11. As well as this ‘formal’ volunteering (ie, with a group, club or organisation), 35 per cent were involved in ‘informal’ volunteering (ie, as an individual) at least once a month, compared to 29 per cent the previous year.

The business department’s permanent secretary Martin Donnelly tells Suzannah Brecknell how his department is working to bring businesses and government together, creating strategies designed to kick start Britain's economic growth

The practice of allowing ministers and officials to see government statistics before publication presents “ a risk to public confidence in the independence of the statistical system” and government should “bring forward legislation at the earliest opportunity” to put tighter controls on pre-release access, according to a select committee report published today.

In 2010, the Ministry of Justice outsourced its courts translation work – but the contractor struggled, and the system ground to a halt. As the probation outsourcing looms, Joshua Chambers looks at the lessons to be learned.