News

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

International Development Committee gives broad backing to UK's new aid strategy – but warns DfID not to lose sight of poverty focus as other departments take on responsibility for spending development assistance funds

Passing powers from Whitehall to local areas is a key government goal. But do civil servants have enough understanding of what is happening on the ground to make the policy work? Colin Marrs talks to experts and officials to find out

The outgoing Commissioner for Public Appointments Sir David Normington warns that proposals to change the way ministers make appointments to top public posts would represent a step in the wrong direction — and could undermine progress in making sure jobs are awarded on merit

Committee chair Bernard Jenkin warns cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood that guidance on support for pro-Brexit ministers could leave officials exposed during legal proceedings — but Heywood says withdrawing them "would simply create uncertainty and confusion"

Bath and North East Somerset Council's Jo Farrar set to join Department for Communities and Local Government's senior management team

New data science projects given the go-ahead in this week’s Budget will give the nation richer and more precise economic figures, the Office for National Statistics has said

There is much to learn from the MyCSP fiasco, which has caused a great deal of distress to people who have worked hard for the civil service

PAC report casts doubt on ability of beefed-up major projects watchdog to scrutinise government’s biggest schemes, and calls on Cabinet Office to explain how it will meet skills shortages needed for "transformation"

Outgoing director of the Institute for Government think tank due to take over from Sir David Normington at watchdog ensuring ministers fill top public jobs on merit

Review says Department for Transport must do more to shape the future development of the nation's rail infrastructure

Proposals to make local government financially self-sufficient by 2020 must not be impacted by George Osborne's business-boosting measures, a lobby group has warned