Leadership

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

Former head of delivery and innovation at the Government Digital Service to take up new role next month

Department for Exiting the European Union "consulting very extensively" on the impact of Brexit to the science sector, says top government adviser, after MPs urge the new department to take on a full-time expert

The map of Whitehall has changed considerably in the months since Stephen Lovegrove left the Department of Energy and Climate Change to become Ministry of Defence perm sec. He tells Colin Marrs about the Brexit help his department can offer, the MoD’s role in boosting Britain’s industry and the staffing cuts he’s tasked with making. Photos by Paul Heartfield

Cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood praises outgoing intelligence chief – who tells ministers he is resigning for personal reasons – for his decades of "dedicated public service"

Civil service leaders have long tried to cut sickness absence rates among their staff. But, asks Suzannah Brecknell, are they looking at the full picture?