Brexit

With the end of 2016 fast approaching, we asked the UK's top civil servants to look back at the year, outline their goals for 2017 – and shed some light on their festive favourites.Clare Moriarty, permanent secretary at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs takes part in our annual perm secs round-up​

DIT officials say Whitehall has trebled its trade policy staff numbers since the referendum, and stress focus on training up existing staff rather than drafting in outsiders

Former chief executive of the Office of Rail and Road has also been Defra and Home Office chief economist

Fomer Foreign and Commonwealth Office director of strategy Alex Ellis set to join new department in January as director general

Former education secretary calls for weekly naming and shaming of civil servants working on big projects, but union for senior officials says his intervention is "more about resurrecting his career as a columnist"

The Department for Exiting the EU will be given £94m a year from 2017, while the FCO and trade department receive extra funding to build trade policy capability. But the FDA union has warned of EU exit "on the cheap"

Spending Review 2015 plans "will remain in place", says the new chancellor – but departments will be able to reinvest some of their 2019/20 savings

"Brexit will be a true test of whether SDPs are fit for purpose", says the Public Accounts Committee

 Former head of the civil service Lord Kerslake urges government to "pause, review, take stock of what it has in front of it and then revisit the question of capacity"

Department looks for almost 100 new staff on a three-year, fixed-term basis

Exclusive: Ian Watmore tells CSW he is "absolutely convinced" that the current crop of ministers "wants to preserve Northcote-Travelyan" model of an impartial civil service, as he sets out focus on diversity, skills and leadership

Labour Party says appointment of Pippa Malmgren raises “awkward questions” for international trade secretary Liam Fox

"I’m confident that they will get there. But no-one should be under illusions – this is an enormous job", says former cabinet secretary

To win at the dice game Perudo, players need to calculate risk and read their opponents. No surprise, then, that Gus O’Donnell is a master. Britain’s former top civil servant talks Blair, Brown and life after Brexit with The House magazine's Sam Macrory

This year's People Survey provides a snapshot of morale at Whitehall's newest organisations: the Department for Exiting the European Union, the Department for International Trade, and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Matt Foster crunches the numbers

Former Foreign Office permanent secretary warns Brexit committee over morale concerns if outside experts are paid more than civil servants delivering UK's exit from the EU

Former Cabinet Office minister says he "very much" doubts more staff will be needed for Brexit and says departments can "reallocate" existing officials – as Downing Street claims leaked memo may be an attempt by consultants to win business

Next week's set piece fiscal statement will not include extra resources to cope with Brexit, according to a memo leaked to The Times

Public Administration Committee says vote to leave the EU means it is "all the more important that the civil service is clear about its mission and role"

Joint FCO and DIT recruitment campaign offers up to £117,800 a year for new faculty within Diplomatic Academy

After a career in journalism spanning the Financial Times, The Times and Prospect, Bronwen Maddox has taken the helm of the Institute for Government. She tells Jess Bowie about her vision for the IfG’s future – and spills the beans on dinner with Russian president Vladimir Putin

"We need to go back, we need to re-plan, we need to be realistic, we can't do it all", says civil service chief executive

Making a success of Brexit does not mean UK should ditch its reputation as a "free, tolerant, outward facing society", says former Foreign Office permanent secretary

Constitutional expert and Whitehall historian Lord Hennessy says work must begin now for an official history of the UK’s exit from the European Union