The Ministry of Defence wants its staff to use social media – but there’s always a danger that unguarded use will create a security risk. Suzannah Brecknell reports on how the MoD can both have its virtual cake, and eat it.

For Foreign Office chief Simon Fraser, his relationships around Whitehall are as crucial as those with Washington. His main mission is to increase trade, he tells Matt Ross, and that means working with a host of other departments

A senior Foreign Office official has warned that the UK’s economic standing in the world could be damaged if the British public ever voted to leave the European Union.

In an increasingly open society, even MI6 has to change the way it operates – and at Civil Service Live, the Secret Intelligence Service’s head Sir John Sawers made a rare public appearance. Joshua Chambers reports

Parliamentary efforts to hold government more closely to account include reforming how British intelligence agencies are overseen. Joshua Chambers reports on a committee walking the line between light and shade

The former chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee, Sir Richard Mottram, has come out against the idea that the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) could hold public hearings with the heads of Britain’s intelligence agencies.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) failed to plan out the skills it will need in the long term before cutting its civilian and military workforces, according a report published by the Public Accounts Committee on Friday.

The papers have been full of frothy stories and silly stereotypes about the civil service, says Mark Lowcock. This risks distracting us from the real – and very important – challenge of adapting to the tasks at hand

The civil service should be more confident in its ability to deal with the challenges facing it, Department for International Development permanent secretary Mark Lowcock has said in an article for CSW.

Andrew Manley, chief executive of the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, looks after the MoD’s £23bn estate – and he’s pushing through one of the most ambitious reform programmes in government. Matt Ross meets him

The chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee has been impressed by the FCO’s work, and applauds many of the coalition’s foreign policies. But he tells Joshua Chambers that the cuts risk damaging our overseas capabilities