Analysis

Ministers must promise to share the rewards of recovery

Civil service reform doesn’t address the big questions, says Patrick Diamond: we need a Northcote-Trevelyan Act for the 21st century

If UK grant funders shared information, says Dawn Austwick, their money could go a lot further: let’s move open data into new spaces

We need democratic oversight of ministerial policy advisers.

Government must create a proper structure to support and empower its increasingly professional finance staff, says Rob Whiteman

As youth unemployment rises to almost a million, Graeme Cooke of the IPPR sets out measures that could help reverse this trend

The FoIA’s critics would trade accountability for convenience

The UK economy is stumbling back into growth, but still remains over three per cent smaller than it was before the global financial crisis in 2008. Real wages have declined in this period – the worse squeeze in living standards for a generation.

Challenge must be encouraged, no matter what the project.

New Zealand's civil service believes that their central government needs one single web portal. Their digital team write about how they’ve taken inspiration from gov.uk.

Britain is not ready to cope with its ageing society – and government should say more on the subject, argues Lord Geoffrey Filkin, chairman of the Lords Committee on Public Service and Demographic Change.

Number 10’s briefing against Sir Bob Kerslake was motivated by a desire to speed up civil service reform – but in the short term, at least, publicly undermining the civil service chief is likely to achieve just the opposite.

America’s fracking revolution has driven down energy prices and given the economy a boost – but could the same happen here? CSW asked the Institute of Directors’ Corin Taylor and energy expert Professor Jim Watson of the University of Sussex to address the question: will fracking be good for the UK?

Improve IT, HR and training – and policy delivery will benefit

Benjamin Franklin once spoke of the perils of sacrificing precious liberty for a little temporary security. His words have a powerful resonance following the saga of state surveillance exposed in recent weeks.

Intelligence agencies’ tools must be updated, not expanded

One man’s honest discussion is another’s backstreet mugging

Allowing ministers a greater say in appointing civil servants will not help to strengthen accountability, argues Dave Penman

Just follow the patented Department of Health HR manual

Search for ‘PFI’ online and you’ll soon conclude that it is desperately in need of a PR makeover. So it was unsurprising when, in November 2011, the chancellor announced a fundamental reassessment of PFI. The result of that exercise is PF2.

A promising model requires evidence and caution.