News

Bernard Jenkin says his Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee needs more time to scrutinise the government's choice for public appointments watchdog – and the government has yet to name its preferred candidate for the civil service equivalent

Jane Marriott, previously director for the Middle East and North Africa at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, is to head up a new counter-terror unit

As the Treasury's permanent Nick Macpherson this week departs the civil service after more than a decade as the department's most senior official, here's our full conversation with his former boss as chancellor, Alistair Darling – who worked with Macpherson as the Treasury grappled with the 2007-8 global economic crisis

Decade-long IT contract – underpinning £500bn in tax revenue – to come to an early end

Infrastructure and Projects Authority says strong public sector involvement coupled with move away from traditional government structures has been a important factor in the success of capital projects like London 2012 and Crossrail

Former cabinet secretary says it is “highly unlikely” that a withdrawal from the European Union would follow the timetable set out in the rules governing the bloc

Culture minister Ed Vaizey says a central government drive is needed to join up disparate digital technology initiatives being pursued by departments in isolation

DfID’s Angela Balakrishnan tells Max Goldbart how cross-government working and innovative content helped to keep the public informed at the height of the Ebola outbreak

A new book by Beth Simone Noveck – a former open-government adviser to both US president Barack Obama and prime minister David Cameron – contains useful lessons for the civil service on finding the right expertise

Latest batch of MoD land disposals will "make the defence estate more efficient and better suited to the needs of our armed forces", says minister Mark Lancaster

Consultation says moving 4,500 civil servants to the private sector will "bring new knowledge and investment" into the Land Registry – but PCS union says plans are driven by "short-term political choice, not economic necessity"

Departments to spearhead use of HR metrics, and target apprenticeships and internships at working class kids, as Cabinet Office updates its diversity Talent Action Plan

Government Outcomes Lab being set up in partnership with Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government​ in a bid to assess the impact of outcome-based commissioning ​schemes

Largest civil service union to ballot members on closure of Department for Business, Innovation and Skills St Paul's Place site – as permanent secretary Martin Donnelly tells MPs the decision will "make policy work more cost-effectively"

Since Clare Moriarty became permanent secretary of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs last August, she has found herself drawing on three decades of Whitehall experience to tackle challenges like flooding and organisational reform. Jess Bowie meets her

Juan Garcés de Marcilla, Director of Copernicus Services, ECMWF, explains the purpose of the EU’s earth observation programme and the economic and moral imperative to act on the insight it provides.

PAC says "encouraging signs of change" on the commercial front – but urges Cabinet Office to do more to chase up departments who are failing to make progress

A lack of challenging advice, no control over important appointments and poor management information are among the frustrations voiced by David Laws, Greg Barker, Ken Clarke, Stephen Hammond and Baroness Kramer speaking in the latest interviews under the Institute for Government's 'Ministers Reflect' series

Cabinet Office's Warren Smith wants service to become the first port of call for procurement

MPs have criticised a culture of “defensive communication and misinformation” at HS2

Government's preferred candidate to succeed Sir David Normington as Commissioner for Public Appointments says revamped process for filling top public jobs will not result in ministers "just being able to get who they want"

Microsoft considers the safest way to push the boundaries of innovation

Looking back on past government blunders, it’s hard not to think senior officials could have done more to persuade politicians to take better decisions, argues former senior civil servant Martin Stanley 

Belgium's national terror alert raised to its highest level following attacks