Articles

Almost two thirds (65%) of civil servants have suffered from ill health as a result of stress at work, one fifth (19%) of which have taken more than 40 days off within a 12 month period as a result of stress-related ill health, new surveys from the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union reveal. 

Phil Gormley, deputy director-general of the National Crime Agency (NCA), outlined the key crimes the UK recognise as falling under the tier two threat of ‘serious and organised crime’. 

The Department of Work and Pensions’ (DWP) decision to close the Independent Living Fund (ILF) for disabled people was challenged by the Equality and Human Rights Commission on 22 October. 

The threat of serious and organised crime should be given recognition when discussing national security, according to the National Crime Agency (NCA). 

A National Audit Office (NAO) report reveals the number of foreign national offenders (FNOs) deported from the UK remains broadly unchanged whilst the number of FNOs in prison has increased by 4% since 2006 despite a tenfold increase in Home Office staff working on FNO cases. 

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg set out new measures to help public sector workers streamline their workload, improve mental wellbeing and share parental leave with partners. 

Admiral Lord West predicts that more emergency legislation over monitoring communications is likely to be needed if the Communications Data Bill does not go forward.

Big data has the potential to completely transform our economy, boosting growth and competitiveness. Pilar del Castillo Vera explains why the EU must act now.

The referendum offered a neat demonstration of the civil service’s capabilities. Now we must learn from its experiences

Pre-election contacts have now begun between opposition and perm secs, but this flawed system should be improved

The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) has announced plans to start recruiting for the roles of pensions ombudsman and deputy pensions ombudsman for 2015.

Journalist and historian Peter Hennessy meets former chief of the defence staff General Sir David Richards to discuss Whitehall’s internal wars, and the need for truly strategic thinking in Whitehall

Helen Edwards left a career in frontline social work and charity management for a job on Whitehall; now she's the DCLG's deputy permanent secretary. She tells Matt Ross about pursuing change in service delivery, councils, and her own department. Photo by Mark Weeks

Labour’s Cabinet Office spokesman is on a charm offensive. Winnie Agbonlahor reports on his plans for Whitehall reform

"I trailblazed freedom of information on Whitehall"

 

Our colleagues in Dods Monitoring have put together a wall chart detailing the government's full ministerial breakdown, including names of spads and contact details for each minister.

FCO historian Richard Smith explains his department’s response to the Great War

In the first of a series of articles examining digital services, Tim Gibson explains online voter registration – a new IT system lying at the very heart of our democracy.

The government has found cross-departmental working more “problematic” than improving coordination at the centre, cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on 7 July.​

The civil service is “one of the key players in resisting the devolution” of powers from Whitehall to local authorities, Clive Betts, chair of the Communities and Local Government Select Committee, has told CSW. 

An intergovernmental committee is required to formalise the relationship between the Welsh and UK governments so that it “doesn’t depend on individual good relationships between people”, Noel Lloyd, a member of the Commission on Devolution in Wales, has told the Welsh Affairs Select Committee.

Cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood (pictured) and Treasury permanent secretary Sir Nicholas Macpherson are to investigate whether the prime minister broke government rules by writing an official letter to nearly two million businesses on the eve of European elections.

Select committees are set to broaden the debate, argues Professor Patrick Dunleavy of the London School of Economics.

Permanent secretaries’ tenure is too short and the high turnover is sometimes to blame when “things go wrong”, according to former cabinet secretary Lord Butler, who also warned that civil servants “aren’t encouraged to speak truth to power”.