Economy

BIS permanent secretary Martin Donnelly announces plans to axe department’s Sheffield operation and create a “combined HQ and policy centre in London”

Think tank report says lack of guidance from central government and Whitehall capacity issues have frustrated local leaders’ efforts to take on more powers

Whitehall tops this year's Times Guide to Higher and Degree Apprenticeships

HMRC's Jim Harra says critics of deal with Google are misunderstanding corporation tax rules – but Labour's John McDonnell renews attack on "very poor deal"

FDA and Prospect urge the Senior Salaries Review Body to back a front-loaded 4% payrise and warn of "divisive" attempts to boost the pay of only a limited number of specialists

Treasury Committee to review HMRC's approach to tax avoidance and consider whether overhaul of corporation tax is needed amid row over deal with search giant Google

Majority of departments will be asked to create new apprenticeships equivalent to 2.3% of their overall staffing levels, BIS confirms

 UK Statistics Authority "deeply concerned" about "unauthorised, widespread sharing of statistics before their publication"

Overall borrowing this year now at £74.2bn,  past the OBR's projection of £68.9bn

Report by MPs says Eurostar sale was managed well but that government used "over cautious assumptions" and should do more to build in-house corporate finance knowledge

Government should be trialling use of distributed ledger technologies to improve welfare payments, according to a report published today

Sir Nicholas Macpherson – the longest serving Treasury perm sec for sixty years – can be credited with overseeing the rebuilding of the finance ministry. But his successor faces a formidable in-tray

MPs on the Public Accounts Committee says the industry regulator is failing to ensure savings are passed on

New report by the National Audit Office spending watchdog finds that while departmental spending on consultants and temporary staff has plummeted over last five years, latest figures indicate a “short-term reduction rather than a sustainable strategy”

Labour’s new commission – led by the former head of the civil service – can learn a host of lessons from previous bids to wrest power from the chancellor, says our columnist Sue Cameron

Chancellor George Osborne pays tribute to "one of the outstanding public servants of his generation" as Macpherson announces his departure from the civil service

Treasury says "one-off" factors to blame for higher-than-forecast public borrowing

What skills and capabilities are required for overseeing major government projects – and is there a clear enough career path for project managers in the civil service? Colin Marrs reports from a recent CSW round table

With the end of 2015 in sight, we asked Whitehall's top officials to review the year, set out their priorities for 2016 – and shed some light on their festive plans. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) chief executive Lin Homer takes part in our biggest-ever perm secs' round-up series...

Senior Department for Transport official – who has served as deputy director for high speed rail strategy – will head up George Osborne's Commission

Ministers keep talking about hammering down public sector terms to private sector levels, while dreaming up new exemptions in order to compete

Furious online reaction to Spending Review blog prompts response by cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood and civil service chief executive John Manzoni – with the pair emphasising areas where civil service is more flexible than the private sector

Civil service chief executive John Manzoni says government "making good" on promise to open up public sector procurement to smaller firms

Report by former deputy governor of the Bank of England says 90% of ONS staff were “unwilling to move” out of London, leading to a “loss of knowledge and experience”