Leadership

The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has appointed Professor John Loughhead as its new chief scientific adviser. Loughhead, who took his post on 22 October, was previously executive director at the UK Energy Research Centre – a publicly-funded institute – and will keep this role on a part-time basis until December.

The civil service must foster “a more vibrant, competitive marketplace” of government contractors and rebuild its skills in contract management, the government’s outgoing chief operating officer Stephen Kelly has told CSW.

The leader of the Opposition’s new electoral strategist, Lucy Powell, was also named as shadow Cabinet Office minister in yesterday’s Labour mini-reshuffle.

Katherine Kerswell has criticised the Department for Communities & Local Government (DCLG) for attacking local authorities over parking fees.

CSW asks former ministers to appraise the UK civil service. This month, Charles Clarke gives his views.

Finance professionals across government should “get on the front foot” and make sure they’re involved in the policymaking process, the government’s new director-general of public spending, Julian Kelly, has said.

Alex Younger has today taken up his new role as chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), taking over from Sir John Sawers, who retired after five years in the post. 

The Crown Prosecution Service saw its staff survey scores on learning and development rise 11 percentage points in a year, thanks to chief exec Peter Lewis

Civil service CEO John Manzoni will now have to quit his second job next year following pressure from 70 leading medical professionals and charities over the potential conflict the role could cause.

Björn Conway, EY Government and Public Sector Leader, gives his outside perspective of the civil service

John Manzoni, the new CEO of the civil service, has waived his £100,000 salary from his second job with a major drinks company, after the Cabinet Office said he could continue in the role “in his own time and on an unpaid basis”.

Peter Lauener has today been announced as the new permanent chief executive of the Skills Funding Agency (SFA).