Articles

A further £22bn in spending cuts or tax rises will be required in the period of the next spending review to 2017-18 if the government is to achieve its goal of eradicating the structural deficit, new analysis says.

With further cuts looming on the horizon, the Institute for Government has analysed three years’ worth of departmental efficiency programmes and recommended a new approach be adopted. Tim Fish reports.

The Ministry of Defence’s procurement arm – Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) – can only continue to offer current levels of service for the department if some jobs are outsourced, its boss Bernard Gray, chief of defence materiel, told the Commons’ Defence Committee yesterday.

A further £22bn in spending cuts or tax rises will be required in the period of the next spending review to 2017-18 if the government is to achieve its goal of eradicating the structural deficit, new analysis says.

A leaked review of the Department for Education (DfE) sets out plans to cut about 1000 jobs, introduce a project team-based structure, focus work on “ministerial priorities” and radically reduce office space.

Stephen Kelly, the government’s new chief operating officer, is in charge of streamlining processes and pursuing efficiency on Whitehall. Joshua Chambers meets the man bringing business practice to the public sector

While spending budgets are slashed and taxes rise, the government is owed nearly £25bn by UK citizens and businesses. Stuart Watson reports from a Civil Service World round table on how to call in those debts

The Cabinet Office Behavioural Insights Team, or ‘nudge unit’, has secured its first overseas contract.

Two years before the budgetary squeeze gripped the civil service, a collapse in the Land Registry’s finances forced it into a painful period of restructuring. Its chief Malcolm Dawson tells Matt Ross about life in a post-cuts world

Sir Alan Massey, chief executive of the Maritime Coastguard Agency (MCA), told the Scottish Affairs Committee yesterday that his reform programme won’t start to make savings until its fourth year.

Cuts to civilian staff at the MoD are falling more heavily on the senior ranks, making the department less top-heavy. Tim Fish reports on the progress of its downsizing efforts compared to those of other departments

The Government Property Unit needs “greater clout” across Whitehall so that it can achieve bigger savings from the sale of government real estate, the Public Accounts Committee said last week.

Some 80 per cent of civil servants believe that replacing IT systems will be an important step on the way to producing ‘more for less’, a CSW survey has found.

The number of HR workers has shrunk by over a third in three years. But while HR departments haven’t enjoyed distributing P45s to their own staff, managers are proud that service quality hasn’t suffered. Colin Marrs reports.

The fitting of small-scale renewable energy generation equipment on the government estate could help cut costs and reduce CO2 emissions. But Nick Schoon finds that nobody is leading on this potentially important agenda

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.

In the past, government campaigns have sometimes resembled a Tower of Babel, with dozens of voices talking about their own ideas. Joshua Chambers examines the emerging plans to bring coherence to communications

All departmental communications functions are to be assessed over the next 18 months as part of a new capability review process, CSW has learned.

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

CBI director-general John Cridland writes (CSW p4, 12 April 2012) that the government has made little progress with its public service reforms over the past nine months. Those working in health and education witnessing major changes being pushed through might beg to differ, as might the civil servants trying to make sense of proposals from ministers for the ‘right to challenge’, ‘right to provide’ and now the ‘right to choose’.

As the government prepares its civil service reform plans, CSW has carried out a major survey of civil servants – testing views both on how Whitehall is changing, and how it should change. Joshua Chambers reports.