Civil Service Reform

HM Revenue and Customs chief executive says low staff morale is not damaging productivity – but acknowledges more work to do to make officials feel engaged with wider department

Matt Hancock says new team will bring together officials and ministers to focus on digital reform

Cross-government SDSR to be unveiled two days before the Spending Review

Combined central and local government outsourcing spend highest since early 2012, according to new research

Garry Graham – taking over from Leslie Manasseh at the union for specialists and managers – calls for "cool appraisal" of performance management by ministers

Decentralisation will not be a "panacea" for improved public services, think tank warns

When Army 2020 was announced in 2012, it represented one of the biggest structural reforms to the British Army in decades. A key plank of the scheme – itself part of the larger Future Force 2020 programme – has been to cut the number of regulars from 102,000 to 82,000 by 2018, and to make up the shortfall with reservists. The programme’s recruitment problems have been well publicised in the past, but, in 2015, is it any closer to ‘mission accomplished’? Colin Marrs reports

Tech industry group says some initiatives designed to open up markets are poorly understood, but Crown Commercial Service chief Sally Collier insists Whitehall is "changing the way it does business" with smaller firms

Chatham House urges protection of FCO – while officials reportedly say they are "confident" of a good outcome at the Spending Review

National Audit Office asked by MPs to check whether Spending Review cuts are taking account of the environment

Equalities and Human Rights Commission warns that gaps in public data are leaving marginalised groups – including transgender people, gypsies and travellers, and bullied children – under the radar

DWP perm sec heaps praise on the department's operations team for finding efficiencies, while acknowledging staff can't "just pedal faster forever"

DVSA in the market for new in-house digital staff after similar move by the DVLA to bring IT back home

Minister for the Cabinet Office Matt Hancock says reforming public servants who are "encumbered by regulatory barriers" need to speak out

Civil service chief executive John Manzoni says move will help Whitehall become "more talented, diverse and effective"

Consultancy to advise HMRC on end of the decade-long IT deal

Four ex-Government Digital Service staff join their old boss at the Co-op

Institute for Government finds it is "much harder than it should be" to establish evidence base for public policymaking – and launches new tool to help officials

Tax may not be high in the YouTube search history of your average teenager, but HMRC's "Tax Facts" campaign has been described as "cheerful and creative". Maureen Pamplin​, the tax authority's head of sustainability, shares her tips on how departments can engage the public – without dumbing down

Hancock bats away Labour questions on GDS turnover – and praises services that take "less time than boiling an egg"

DCMS perm sec Sue Owen says failure to meet new diversity objectives will be made "very public"

Major projects in focus: As HMRC calls time on Aspire, the government’s largest IT contract, Matt Foster finds that the tax authority is opting for evolution over revolution – and trying to sharpen its own digital skills

Opinion: The need to find new ways of delivering services while resources are tight is the real reason for the new localism push

Chancellor chairs first meeting of the public expenditure committee (PEX) — with DWP and DfID spending said to be under scrutiny