Leadership

Education department picks former Number 10 Delivery Unit chief to lead competition-focused new universities regulator

Ex-first civil service commissioner Sir David Normington calls for new guidance on the relationship between civil servants, ministers and special advisers, as he urges the prime minister and cabinet secretary to make a public statement on the need for impartial officials

MPs quiz three departmental chiefs on the role of special advisers – and the impact of briefings against civil servants

New appointments in the civil service, UK politics, and public affairs, via our colleagues on Dods People

Whitehall insider-turned-academic Richard Mottram says EU referendum and its aftermath underscores the uphill struggle of speaking truth to power

First Civil Service Commissioner Ian Watmore tells CSW that departments will now be able to bring in senior staff for up to three years and on a maximum salary of £142,000 without having to go through an open recruitment process

Praise for outgoing Rural Payments Agency chief after troubled period, as Defra announces that Paul Caldwell is stepping up to serve as interim CEO

New appointments in the civil service, UK politics, and public affairs, via our colleagues on Dods People

Exclusive: Cabinet secretary says reform agenda remains "strongly supported by ministers" after several key Francis Maude-era initiatives are scrapped, but stresses focus on "embedding leadership at a departmental level"

Exclusive: Cabinet secretary tells CSW that Theresa May feels "very strongly that she and other ministers were elected on a Conservative Party manifesto that must still stand", as he stands by the decision to set up two new Brexit-focused departments

Five years into his job as the UK's top official, Sir Jeremy Heywood faces his greatest challenge yet – ensuring the civil service he leads is ready for the mammoth task of leaving the European Union. Jess Bowie and Matt Foster sit down with the cabinet secretary to talk Brexit, Theresa May, public sector pay – and the future of Whitehall's reform agenda

Green light from the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee follows hearing in which he said the Government Statistical Service appeared to have been “downgraded” over the years