Civil Service Reform

Treasury committee chair Andrew Tryie warns of "lack of detailed explanation" of how HMRC's Making Tax Digital plans will play out

Iconic Whitehall building sold as part of MoD plans to make estate savings. Department says it will be "sympathetically restored, redeveloped and re-imagined as a high quality hotel and residential apartments"

“We're at the start of the government platform,” GDS executive director tells the Public Sector ICT Summit 

MPs urge the Government Digital Service to provide more support if it wants departments to embrace digital innovation, after report finds that focus on 'digital by default' hindered delivery of new rural payments scheme

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"

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

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

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

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"