News

Burns Commission on Freedom of Information sides against charges for FOI requests, but calls for greater clarity on protecting policy-making

It now seems as though civil servants are being told to block information to ministers in favour of leaving the European Union, despite the fact that the same ministers are constitutionally accountable to parliament for the conduct of their departments. Today's hearing with the cabinet secretary must provide answers

Public pending watchdog finds delays in the justice system because of “basic avoidable mistakes” and says reform alone will not tackle all “causes of inefficiency"

Much of the debate over civil service support given to ministers in favour of Brexit is simple sound and fury. But the issue of the relationship between senior civil servants and ministers is unlikely to go away

Treasury perm sec Nick Macpherson says incoming HMRC chief exec Thompson will focus on "spending the money", while executive chair Edward Troup will oversee "strategic, policy and reputational leadership" of the tax authority

Interviews for the top Treasury job get going this week – as Macpherson jokes process could "go into a black hole for many months"

Eurosceptic employment minister Priti Patel escalates row over civil service impartiality in the run-up to the European Union referendum – but former cabinet secretary Lord O'Donnell says guidance issued by his successor Sir Jeremy Heywood last week is "pretty well right"

Senior Tory says Treasury should take the lead on official stats as Cabinet Office and UK Statistics Authority "have been asleep at the wheel"

BT examines the role of IT in the future delivery of justice.

The Big Lottery Fund has channelled billions of pounds in proceeds from the National Lottery to good causes. Colin Marrs quizzes chief executive Dawn Austwick on the interplay between her organisation’s priorities and the government’s

"There are always ways to make government better, always ways to make sure that the taxes of people are better spent," says chancellor, against gloomy global economic backdrop

Cabinet secretary will be questioned by the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee on Tuesday, after ministers in favour of leaving the EU question guidance on use of official resources

Pacac says government spends “considerable amounts of money” producing accounts even thought it "not clear that they are of any use to select committees, or to the public"

Lord Kerslake says it is “impossible to see why any fair person would want to remove this very basic service” - and vows to "sing the national anthem" if the government shelves plans to end automatic "check off" of fees from civil servants' pay packets

Cabinet office minister Matt Hancock says the ONS - which moved out of London in the mid-2000s - will stay in Newport to to act as a "big data hub" in the region

793-page investigation into response to Savile's serial offending cites warnings from former cabinet secretary Lord Butler over plans to award TV and radio star a knighthood

£23.2m contract to develop a new generation of GPS tags scrapped because it has proved “too challenging”. The MoJ tells CSW it still expects to see benefits of spending to date on the deal

"One of our most important collective responsibilities is to improve the diversity of our senior leadership," says cabinet secretary, as new senior network launched

“All we’re asking is for the Met Office to be able to allocate what it needs to fund staff by industry standards,” Prospect’s Gordon Hutchinson tells CSW, as hundreds of Met Office staff set up picket lines

Civil service chief executive John Manzoni talks to Suzannah Brecknell about leadership, transforming government and building relationships with the private sector

Sue Higgins, executive leader at the National Audit Office, explains why the public spending watchdog decided to look into the relationship between ministers and perm secs – and why the NAO believes the incentives for accounting officers to prioritise value for money are still too weak

Thompson to succeed Lin Homer as chief executive, while tax specialist Edward Troup to chair the board's executive committee

Public Accounts Committee criticises lack of transparency over HM Revenue and Customs' £130m, ten-year tax deal with Google – but says department has taken "a step in the right direction" in pledging reform of penalty regime

Peter Wilkinson, director of rail passenger services at the DfT, comes under fire after reportedly telling commuters they had "got to break" industrial action over changes to train drivers' terms