Foreign Affairs

The Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) is in competition with ministers’ special advisers, friends, think tanks and other groups, NICS permanent secretary Malcolm McKibbin has said, and must demonstrate to politicians that its advice is the highest quality if ministers “are to properly value our information and our service.”

The Department for International Development (DfID) has the greatest capability to meet its delivery challenges while the Department of Health (DH) is least well-equipped to do so, the latest round of capability reviews suggest.

The FCO’s target to double trade with developing countries, including Turkey and Brazil, looks as though it has been worked out on the “back of a fag packet,” Richard Ottaway, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, has told CSW.

The Ministry of Defence’s land and property management arm, the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), is working on a plan to radically shrink its estate through land sales, its chief executive Andrew Manley has said in an interview with CSW. Manley is also close to tendering for a commercial partner for DIO, in a move that will bring in estates development and sales skills to help the ministry get the best possible price for its asse

The aircraft carrier replacement programme has been dogged by indecision, delays and rising costs – and now a U-turn looms. Becky Slack examines one of Britain’s biggest and most dysfunctional public procurements.

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Computer hackers have threatened to repeatedly attack government websites, following cyber-attacks that caused the Home Office website to crash last weekend.

The Independent Commission for Aid Impact has raised concerns about the financial management of DfID’s aid projects in Afghanistan, which are worth up to £178m in 2011-12.

Despite a change of approach in Whitehall, civil servants in Northern Ireland will continue to pursue ‘spend to save’, Dr Malcolm McKibbin, head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS), has told CSW.

As head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, Dr Malcolm McKibbin has a very challenging job. However, as he tells Joshua Chambers, the main challenge has evolved from ending the Troubles to stimulating business growth

After nearly 22 months, the Commons select committees’ first elected chairs have had plenty of time to size up their Whitehall counterparts. Joshua Chambers asked them how the departments they watch have been performing

Departmental select committee chairs have provided mixed reviews of the departments they scrutinise for a Civil Service World Special Report, which has found that 40 per cent of them are dissatisfied with departments’ responses to their reports.

Leading Tory thinker Nick Boles has challenged the government’s immigration cap, arguing that the policy threatens the ability of Britain’s universities to contribute to economic growth.

Permanent Secretary, Department for International Development

The Stabilisation Unit is already a well-established cross-departmental partnership, and its role is set to grow. Suzannah Brecknell meets its head to discuss conflict prevention – both overseas, and within Whitehall.

An employee of a British embassy in the Middle East struggles with telecommunications during the Arab Spring.

Relations between the Ministry of Defence and its select committee have not always been easy. But its chairman James Arbuthnot tells Ben Willis that MoD officials shouldn’t view the committee corridor as enemy territory.

The Intelligence and Security Committee has helped to foster the intelligence agencies' arrival on the public stage. Now, its new chairman Malcolm Rifkind tells Matt Ross, his committee should be handed control of the spotlights.

The new National Security Council will draw a range of departments into crucial decisions on security. Matt Ross reports on the coalition’s attempt to win cross-government consensus in a complex and unpredictable world.

No-one now doubts that Britain faces an era of public spending cuts – but we won’t be the first country to have dealt with them. Matthew O’Toole finds some encouraging examples of how other nations have coped in tough times.

Matthew Rycroft, who heads up EU policy at the foreign office, hopes to move the union on from a decade of institutional wrangling to tackle strategic issues. He tells Matthew O’Toole why it’s time to focus on the big picture

Without a coordinated approach to intervention in conflicts, both nations and departments can end up working at cross-purposes. Matt Ross meets Richard Teuten, who fosters over-arching UK strategies on armed struggles

Paddy Ashdown, former Lib Dem leader and co-chair of the IPPR’s Commission on National Security, tells Matt Ross that we are ill-prepared for the challenges of a new era of globalised, decentralised power