Civil Service Reform

The legal team at the government-owned British Business Bank has brought together public and private sector expertise to create a new organisation with a challenging mandate – to boost lending to thousands of small and medium-sized businesses. Shanika Amarasekara, general counsel for the bank, shares her team's experience 

MPs say closure of BIS Sheffield will result in "loss of vital expertise, shrink the civil service talent pool and reduce the variety of experiences that contribute to policy-making"

After better-than-expected Spending Review settlement, Foreign Office perm sec says new review to make FCO "more flexible" will not be ignored

Powerful Economic and Domestic Secretariat to get a new deputy director to help departments focus on longer-term trends and the impact of technology

"I think we continued to do the ‘to departments’ [approach] for perhaps a little longer than we could or should have," GDS boss says

IfG's deputy director Julian McCrae says long-awaited new plans are "little more than a laundry list of nice to haves"

Ministers say new, single documents bringing together spending totals and broad reform plans will "enable the public to see how government is delivering"

"Single, clear" plans for the next four years of change in departments expected imminently

The civil service is completely dependent on the professionalism of its workforce – but is there enough recognition of the effect that distressing decisions can have on officials?

"Technology Products 2" framework will launch later this year – and CCS has begun conversations with departments and suppliers about improving the £1bn-a-year arrangement for buying in hardware and software

As Home Office prepares to take on full responsibility for fire and rescue services from the Department for Communities and Local Government, MPs on the Public Accounts Committee say Whitehall must do more to understand the local implications of budget cuts

Public and Commercial Services union mulls industrial action over "unnecessary and inflammatory" compulsory redundancies – but HMRC says it has done "everything possible" to avert the situation

With responsibility for policing, immigration, borders and countering extremism, Mark Sedwill certainly has a lot on his plate. The Home Office permanent secretary talks to Matt Foster about the power of events, the drive to improve staff morale – and why the department’s “policy-heavy” headquarters are in line for a shake-up

Report by committee of MPs says UK government is "in a world-leading position" on open data – but could be "proactively identifying data sharing opportunities to break departmental data silos"

When good ideas emerge, the public sector should seize on them, give them money – and publicise the civil servants who have dreamed them up. 

English devolution is a journey without a clear destination – producing a long overdue rebalancing of power, but within continuing tight financial constraints

Home Office's top official tells CSW his ongoing review of the core department will see its headquarters "delayered" and its "management structures simplified" in a bid to better to support the frontline and learn from other departments

Transport department has improved its ability to let rail franchises, MPs say, but still lacks the capability to manage them, and does not have a “coherent strategic vision” for the rail system

Rolling out text alerts, sorting out "crap" government IT, cleaning up data, and trying to recruit skilled people when the money's tight — there's plenty going on in the world of government digital, as Matt Foster found at the Government Digital Service's annual gathering

Latest Outsourcing Index by firm arvato finds 26% year-on-year rise in government spending on outsourcing

As the civil service vows to improve the diversity of its graduate intake, former senior official Andrew Greenway asks whether Oxford's famed PPE degree is really a golden ticket to the top of the political and administrative elite 

90% of business department's sites to close under BIS 2020 programme, says Sajid Javid, as Martin Donnelly calls decision to shut Sheffield office "one of the most difficult" of his career

Crossrail, the capital’s new east-west rail link, is on track to open on time and on budget. As well as being a boon for commuters, it could also improve the UK’s reputation for delivering major infrastructure projects. Colin Marrs digs around for some lessons

Treasury consultation confirms plans for wide-ranging shake-up of exit terms – with the FDA union branding the proposals an "ideological attack on public servants"