Articles

Martin Stanley recalls his own shift into the world of watchdogs and introduces his new ‘Understanding Regulation’ website

Environmental campaigners seek High Court review of clean air proposals and consultation

Government is considering a scrappage scheme for more polluting cars, draft strategy reveals

Move will free the institution from public sector ownership, says minister

Untangling the UK’s complicated relationship with European environmental policies and subsidies could be the hardest part of leaving the EU. Mark Rowe reports

Outgoing Food Standards Agency chief executive Catherine Brown believed she had a job with a low media profile until the horse meat scandal raced over the horizon. She tells Mark Smulian about the changes she has made in the department over the last five years and her plans for the future

Department also pledges to develop new agriculture and land use plans ahead of Brexit

Former Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs perm sec Bronwyn Hill tells CSW that Brexit offers the chance to rethink UK's rural subsidy system

Once credited as the woman who “smashed Whitehall’s glass ceiling”, Bronwyn Hill spent four years as Defra permanent secretary until she stepped down in 2015. She tells Sam Macrory about her new role, Brexit expectations for her former fiefdom, and one minister’s time in the mire

Report on full impact of delays with Common Agricultural Policy funds distribution says UK taxpayers will be left with £642m in penalties 

Maritime and Coastguard Agency deal worth up to 20% for some staff, and a minimum of 2%

Watchdog cites failure to get Treasury agreement for scheme's lifetime funding as contributing factor to the cancellation of a £100m competition

Former Barnet and Haringey council CEO Nick Walkley set to take helm of delivery body

With the end of 2016 fast approaching, we asked the UK's top civil servants to look back at the year, outline their goals for 2017 – and shed some light on their festive favourites.Clare Moriarty, permanent secretary at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs takes part in our annual perm secs round-up​

National Audit Office says GDS now getting on better with Defra after subsidies fiasco – but announces wider probe into effectiveness of the central digital team

Climate sceptics were jubilant when Theresa May announced the end of a dedicated climate change department. But, as Professor Sam Fankhauser of the Grantham Research Institute argues, bringing together the teams working to cut carbon with those drawing up industrial policy could be a smart move 

Martin Donnelly and Alex Chisholm leading the newly-created department as joint permanent secretaries

New report praises cross-government progress since 2010 but questions the value of Single Departmental Plans

The former Energy and Climate Change chief scientist, who died earlier this year, taught his department how to do policymaking without the hot air – by making the process data-led, iterative and open

MPs says Rural Payments Agency "must communicate clearly with its customers and ensure that it is appropriately resourced" to avoid repeat of the delays faced by farmers waiting on Common Agricultural Payments

Since Clare Moriarty became permanent secretary of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs last August, she has found herself drawing on three decades of Whitehall experience to tackle challenges like flooding and organisational reform. Jess Bowie meets her

Sir Philip Dilley to step down, citing media intrusion and requirement to be "available at short notice throughout the year"

Dieter Helm, chair of the advisory Natural Capital Committee, urges creation of a new "smaller, more tightly focussed Environment Protection agency"

The Met Office's first home-grown chief executive talks to Jess Bowie about leading the award-winning organisation, grappling with the effects of public sector pay restraint​, and his concerns over the BBC's decision not to renew its contract with the national weather service