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Digital technology offers tremendous opportunities for people of all ages. Being able to buy groceries or access a huge amount of information at the click of a button is fantastic, as is the ability to keep in touch with loved ones via email, video link and social media. However, although the opportunities offered online are immense, there are real challenges for some when it comes to getting digitally connected in the first place.

A further £22bn in spending cuts or tax rises will be required in the period of the next spending review to 2017-18 if the government is to achieve its goal of eradicating the structural deficit, new analysis says.

Local authorities could have planning powers taken away if they perform poorly, Bob Kerslake, the permanent secretary of the Department for Communities and Local Government and head of the civil service, confirmed on Monday.

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The proportion of women taking new public appointments is “not good enough”, public appointments commissioner Sir David Normington has said.

Parliament’s Human Rights Committee (HRC) has criticised the government’s Justice and Security Bill over plans to extend the use of secret evidence in civil court cases.

A leaked review of the Department for Education (DfE) sets out plans to cut about 1000 jobs, introduce a project team-based structure, focus work on “ministerial priorities” and radically reduce office space.

The Olympics Secretariat brought together reps from about 20 government bodies, forming a single team to manage the Games. Tim Fish investigates the complex team established to manage a very complex project.

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The UK has the highest rate of depression-related sickness in Europe, according to a recent survey by the European Depression Alliance. And alarmingly, over a third of the 792 managers surveyed said they have no formal support in place to help them deal with depressed employees. We have a very long way to go before we can say we’re properly supporting employers and employees in recognising and managing depression in the workplace. And this is certainly true within the civil service.

“Not until I came to Whitehall did I learn that the country was run by two men, neither of whom I had ever heard of”, said Lord Victor Rothschild of his 1970 meeting with Sir Burke Trend and Sir William Armstrong, secretary to the cabinet and head of the home civil service respectively. But increasingly lurid attention from The Daily Telegraph, The Times and the Daily Mail, along with their Sunday siblings, is making sure that latter day grandees will have no such ignorance as to the name and power of the cabinet secretary since January this year, Sir Jeremy Heywood.

Never mind the NAO; ministers too hate a risk gone wrong

It’s been a “challenging and difficult year for the civil service,” cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood said last month at an event held to celebrate the publication of the 200th issue of CSW – and the paper has been helpful as “by far the most effective way... to put out a single message that gets to all civil servants.”

Privilege days – where civil servants get extra days off following bank holidays or on days significant to the monarchy – are “completely out of line” with what you would see in the private sector and must be reviewed, Sir Bob Kerslake, head of the civil service, has told CSW.

About 2m households will receive less housing benefit under plans by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to save £2.3bn by 2014-15, the National Audit Office (NAO) says today.

Efforts by the Treasury to incorporate long-term analyses into its budgetary calculations are being hampered by the political calculations of successive governments, Nick Macpherson, permanent secretary at HM Treasury, said on Monday.

Tight rules control how troops can engage in combat; but the regime governing how former military figures can sell their skills and contacts to private companies are much weaker. Joshua Chambers assesses the system.

To ensure greater international competitiveness and help boost Britain’s economy in the long term, the Treasury is prioritising investment in infrastructure. Colin Marrs appraises the government’s efforts

Stephen Kelly, the government’s new chief operating officer, is in charge of streamlining processes and pursuing efficiency on Whitehall. Joshua Chambers meets the man bringing business practice to the public sector

The government is eager to increase the amount of goods and services it buys from small and medium-sized enterprises. Mark Smulian attends a round table on the opportunities, the challenges – and the solutions