Foreign Affairs

Chancellor says Treasury civil servants planning for the impact of leaving the EU on financial stability in the UK – but Number 10 maintains no wider policy planning taking place

A review of process and structures in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) calls for a “technological overhaul”, stronger leadership of cross-government work overseas, and an end to dependence on email

Foreign Affairs Committee report says challenges of vote to leave would not be "insurmountable" for the Foreign Office – but makes clear the department would need a big boost in resources to cope with the fall-out

Border Force resource budget will be £558.1m for 2016/17 – a cut of 0.4% on last year – but the agency gets a capital spending boost

Theresa May writes to the Home Affairs Committee chair over Border Force budget, after MPs order second permanent secretary Olly Robbins to face a second evidence session

George Osborne says Brexit would cause UK to "lose tens of billions of pounds in money for our public services" – but eurosceptic MP Bernard Jenkin says chancellor “should be ashamed of himself” for ordering civil servants to draw up Treasury analysis

As the new UK Aid Strategy sets out a bigger role for the rest of Whitehall in spending development money, DfID's permanent secretary Mark Lowcock sits down with Matt Foster to discuss the challenges of working across government – and why his department won’t lose its sense of mission

Behind some of the dubious and downright dishonest claims in the debate over Britain's place in the EU is a belief that government is easy. This is nonsense

International Development permanent secretary Mark Lowcock tells CSW that asking other departments to take on aid commitments won't undermine DfID's mission — and says some of his staff have been poached for their expertise

Malcolm McKibbin tells staff 17-month embargo on new hires is over, after around 3,000 staff quit service via Voluntary Exit Scheme

Statistics show the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s consular service took around half a million calls over the past 12 months, some of them far from genuine emergencies

Department for International Development permanent secretary tells CSW about efforts to provide a "rigorous analytical framework" for measuring international civil service performance

MPs says there is concern over FCO's focus in spite of boost for human rights spending – but the department says human rights will "always be a central part of our diplomacy"

Chairman of the cross-party Liaison Committee writes to David Cameron to say he believes referendum rules for civil servants take too much power from pro-Brexit ministers

Jane Marriott, previously director for the Middle East and North Africa at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, is to head up a new counter-terror unit

DfID’s Angela Balakrishnan tells Max Goldbart how cross-government working and innovative content helped to keep the public informed at the height of the Ebola outbreak

International Development Committee gives broad backing to UK's new aid strategy – but warns DfID not to lose sight of poverty focus as other departments take on responsibility for spending development assistance funds

Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee chair Bernard Jenkin writes to prime minister David Cameron to complain about social media conduct of adviser Daniel Korski

FDA general secretary Dave Penman says lack of cabinet unity on EU referendum is a headache for civil servants – but insists campaigning rules don't need to stifle debate

Cabinet secretary tells the public administration and constitutional affairs select committee that "nobody's having any difficulty with my guidance on the ground", as eurosceptics hit out at curbs on civil service support for ministers in favour of Britain leaving the European Union

It now seems as though civil servants are being told to block information to ministers in favour of leaving the European Union, despite the fact that the same ministers are constitutionally accountable to parliament for the conduct of their departments. Today's hearing with the cabinet secretary must provide answers

Much of the debate over civil service support given to ministers in favour of Brexit is simple sound and fury. But the issue of the relationship between senior civil servants and ministers is unlikely to go away

Eurosceptic employment minister Priti Patel escalates row over civil service impartiality in the run-up to the European Union referendum – but former cabinet secretary Lord O'Donnell says guidance issued by his successor Sir Jeremy Heywood last week is "pretty well right"

"There are always ways to make government better, always ways to make sure that the taxes of people are better spent," says chancellor, against gloomy global economic backdrop