Communications

GDS's Persis Howe says it is "​jarring to hear the wrong words" when visually impaired people access government websites with screen readers

New prime minister brings former Home Office Spads Fiona Hill and Nick Timothy back to the fold

Royal Statistical Society praises Transport department for "honest" and "innovative" presentation of official statistics

Tom Scholar rejects suggestion referendum preparations were weak and focused on securing a “Remain” result – but confirms existence of civil service-wide resource review

University College London academics spearhead drive for independent inquiry into both sides’ “misinformation” and “outright falsehood”

The environment department’s top official calls on staff to confide in each other as a way of boosting morale in one of the government’s unhappiest departments

Statistics show the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s consular service took around half a million calls over the past 12 months, some of them far from genuine emergencies

DfID’s Angela Balakrishnan tells Max Goldbart how cross-government working and innovative content helped to keep the public informed at the height of the Ebola outbreak

Former Times health editor on the move to BIS

Department for Work and Pensions' Mayank Prakash tells Public Sector ICT Summit: “Before I can talk to a person they tell me what grade they are – and I struggle with it"

Peter Wilkinson, director of rail passenger services at the DfT, comes under fire after reportedly telling commuters they had "got to break" industrial action over changes to train drivers' terms

IPSOS Mori research finds four-point rise in those who trust civil servants to tell the truth — and strong trust among "Generation Y"

A new colleague-to-colleague counselling service has been created at the Cabinet Office in a bid to fill gaps in current help and support provision

Bankers Fields Wicker-Miurin and Neil Mendoza set to join department

With the end of 2015 in sight, we asked Whitehall's top officials to look back at the year, set out their priorities for 2016 – and shed some light on their festive plans...

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. Dame Sally Davies, chief medical officer for England, takes part in our biggest-ever perm secs' round-up series...

Former head of the civil service tells Labour's own FoI review that intentional leaks to the press show "double standard" in Whitehall over the transparency law

Former head of the civil service says "public will draw their own conclusions" about any attempt to curb the transparency law

Furious online reaction to Spending Review blog prompts response by cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood and civil service chief executive John Manzoni – with the pair emphasising areas where civil service is more flexible than the private sector

Live: Rolling coverage of the Comprehensive Spending Review and Autumn Statement provided by CSW's sister title PoliticsHome

National Cyber Centre to open in Cheltenham, George Osborne announces, amid flurry of security spending announcements in the wake of the Paris terror attacks

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

Many of the world’s most famous government officials never actually existed. As the legendary crown servant James Bond returns to our screens in Spectre, we profile some more made-up mandarins – and invite you to vote for your favourite. Illustrations by John Levers

Home secretary says it is right that cabinet ministers are "not making comments" on Heathrow's third runway until final government decision