Articles

MP Meg Hillier tells CSW that public confidence in the way HM Revenue and Customs reaches settlement deals with large corporations will be an issue until there is greater transparency

Rolling out text alerts, sorting out "crap" government IT, cleaning up data, and trying to recruit skilled people when the money's tight — there's plenty going on in the world of government digital, as Matt Foster found at the Government Digital Service's annual gathering

National Audit Office report finds City of London Corporation, PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Confederation of British Industry, and Deloitte topping list of providers of hospitality and gifts to senior officials — and calls for better central scrutiny of transparency returns

Report by the Alliance for Useful Evidence and the Institute for Government finds officials held back by "structural and cultural barriers" between UK's various governments

MPs say they are “disappointed” by lack of clarity over progress on welfare reforms

Cabinet Office-commissioned report finds flagship Fast Stream graduate programme remains “unrepresentative of the population at large”, as minister Matt Hancock vows to take action

New research shows Whitehall departments are good at sharing data with each other, but openness with the wider public sector is more of a challenge

As the government's chief scientist says Blockchain technology could "revolutionise services", Jeni Tennison of the Open Data Institute examines some of the benefits to the public sector in taking a leaf out of Bitcoin's book

New report by consultancy EY reveals the state of gender equality among the senior civil service

Coalition justice minister Lord McNally warns FoI review panel is a "rigged jury" – while Lib Dem chief whip Tom Brake attacks Jeremy Heywood and Gus O'Donnell

Watchdog seeks additional information on commercial sector links

Upward trajectory of FoI demands continues as Ministry of Justice sees further delays to "acceptable" response-time 

With the end of 2015 in sight, we asked Whitehall's top officials to review the year, set out their priorities for 2016 – and shed some light on their festive plans. Graham Farrant, chief executive of the Land Registry, takes part in our biggest-ever perm secs round-up series...

With the end of 2015 in sight, we asked Whitehall's top officials to review the year, set out their priorities for 2016 – and shed some light on their festive plans. Sir Simon McDonald, permanent secretary of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, takes part in our biggest-ever perm secs round-up series...

With the end of 2015 in sight, we asked Whitehall's top officials to review the year, set out their priorities for 2016 – and shed some light on their festive plans. John Pullinger, UK National Statistician and head of the Government Statistical Service, takes part in our biggest-ever perm secs round-up series...

Rosemary Agnew says open data should be seen as complementing Freedom of Information, as she warns UK government commission is a “threat to FoI in the UK"

Latest Whitehall Monitor from the Institute for Government says government must not take quality of open data for granted – and says new chief data officer will need "sufficient political and institutional clout" to make the issue a priority

Information Commissioner's Office tells the Burns review of Freedom of Information that charges – backed by officials in a recent CSW survey – would have a "deterrent effect" and could create more work for departments

Additional intelligence officers to be announced in Strategic Defence and Security Review 

HM Revenue & Customs briefs staff on major downsizing of its estate – CSW has the key details and reaction from unions

Cabinet Office minister Matt Hancock sets up a new group to help departments to become "intelligent consumers of their own data" – and promises lunchtime coding groups for civil servants. Audience members at the Open Data Institute meanwhile quiz him on the privatisation of the Postcode Address File

Special report: Extensive cross-government survey finds broad range of views on the FOI act – with calls for more central support in dealing with requests and just over 50% of officials in favour of introducing charges

The Equality and Human Rights Commission today launches ‘Is Britain Fairer?’, a comprehensive assessment of Britain’s progress on equality and human rights in the last five years. But, as the EHRC's Verena Brähler writes, a lack of data is preventing public sector bodies from getting the full picture – and could be leaving some groups invisible