Security & Defence

Strategic Defence and Security Review sets out aim of reducing MoD civilian staff numbers to 41,000 – with unions warning that the scale of cuts could have frontline ramifications

Civilian MoD workforce reportedly in line for staffing reductions as David Cameron prepares to unveil Strategic Defence and Security Review

David Cameron to outline cross government defence and security review in the Commons later – as George Osborne confirms all departments have settled with the Treasury ahead of Wednesday's Spending Review

National Cyber Centre to open in Cheltenham, George Osborne announces, amid flurry of security spending announcements in the wake of the Paris terror attacks

Cyber security apprentices from government to join apprentices from BT at networking and training event later this month

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

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

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

Senior Tory backbencher joins former Treasury solicitor Sir Paul Jenkins in questioning removal of reference to international law

Beyond the comfort zone: Andrew Rogoyski, head of cyber security services at global IT supplier CGI, tells Civil Service World about an eye-opening secondment working on cyber security in the Cabinet Office

Freedom of Information has been a "very big positive" in spite of "chilling effects", says Cabinet secretary

Defence secretary tells RUSI think tank that the latest cross-government defence strategy will be "positive, assertive and quite properly strategic"

MI5 director general Andrew Parker gives first live interview to "increase understanding" of intelligence agency's work – and suggests social media firms have an "ethical responsibility" to report terror concerns

Workforce shrinks by 8,000 posts – with GovCos and privatisations accounting for much of the change

Former attorney general – and recent critic of government's human rights plans – elected to lead the Intelligence and Security Committee

The official view: Clare Short spent six years as Tony Blair's international development secretary. Here she tells us about motivating officials, how her private secretary snuck her into a global trade conference, and why the civil service must pay "fair wages" to its staff

Royal United Services Institute says protection of Ministry of Defence budget alone may not be enough to safeguard against wider threats

New watchdog the Single Source Regulations Office seeks to overhaul MoD deals with single-source contractors

As co-founders of the Defence Cyber Protection Partnership, the Ministry of Defence is at the forefront of efforts to tackle the rising threat of cyber attack. Sarah Aston talks to the MoD’s cyber industry deputy head Daniel Selman

Simon McDonald, UK ambassador to Germany since 2010, to take up post as FCO's most senior official from September

Justice department to run policy fellowships to expand “pool of people” delivering extensive reform programme

When Foreign Office letters on a plan to move the entire population of  Hong Kong to Northern Ireland turned up at the National Archives, many media outlets failed to spot the hoax. Former FCO official David Snoxell shares the story behind the correspondence, and warns against humour-free diplomacy

Philip Hammond tells MPs that while Treasury's 25% and 40% cuts call likely to be "aspirational", FCO must make "strategic" savings

UK’s representative to the UN Sir Mark Lyall-Grant will succeed Sir Kim Darroch as David Cameron’s national security adviser