Budget 2025: Departments told to find extra £4.9bn in efficiencies
26 Nov 2025 Economics

Budget 2025: Departments told to find extra £4.9bn in efficiencies

New target follows near-£14bn efficiencies committed to for SR25 period
by Tevye Markson
Shifts and ruptures: Heywood fellow on how the UK should respond to a changing global economic order
24 Apr Economics
Shifts and ruptures: Heywood fellow on how the UK should respond to a changing global economic order
'Region building is nation building': Who is responsible for driving economic growth?
20 Apr Economics
'Region building is nation building': Who is responsible for driving economic growth?
Scrap 60% office mandate, union demands amid rising living costs
27 Mar Economics
Scrap 60% office mandate, union demands amid rising living costs
EU referendum row: DWP minister Priti Patel says Jeremy Heywood's guidance on pro-Brexit ministers 'threatens the reputation of the civil service' – as Gus O'Donnell leaps to his defence
29 Feb 2016 Economics
EU referendum row: DWP minister Priti Patel says Jeremy Heywood's guidance on pro-Brexit ministers "threatens the reputation of the civil service" – as Gus O'Donnell leaps to his defence

Eurosceptic employment minister Priti Patel escalates row over civil service impartiality in the run-up to the European Union referendum – but former cabinet secretary Lord O'Donnell says guidance issued by his successor Sir Jeremy Heywood last week is "pretty well right"
Cabinet Office should lose responsibility for official statistics to halt 'deterioration in quality', says Treasury committee chair Andrew Tyrie
29 Feb 2016 Economics
Cabinet Office should lose responsibility for official statistics to halt "deterioration in quality", says Treasury committee chair Andrew Tyrie

Senior Tory says Treasury should take the lead on official stats as Cabinet Office and UK Statistics Authority "have been asleep at the wheel"
Budget 2016: George Osborne says departments could be in line for more cuts
29 Feb 2016 Economics
Budget 2016: George Osborne says departments could be in line for more cuts

"There are always ways to make government better, always ways to make sure that the taxes of people are better spent," says chancellor, against gloomy global economic backdrop
Public Administration Committee asks whether departments' accounts are up to the job
26 Feb 2016 Economics
Public Administration Committee asks whether departments' accounts are up to the job

Pacac says government spends “considerable amounts of money” producing accounts even thought it "not clear that they are of any use to select committees, or to the public"
Former civil service head Lord Kerslake blasts “demeaning” move to end automatic “check off” of union fees across Whitehall
26 Feb 2016 Economics
Former civil service head Lord Kerslake blasts “demeaning” move to end automatic “check off” of union fees across Whitehall

Lord Kerslake says it is “impossible to see why any fair person would want to remove this very basic service” - and vows to "sing the national anthem" if the government shelves plans to end automatic "check off" of fees from civil servants' pay packets
MoD's Jon Thompson to lead operational side of HMRC – as second perm sec Edward Troup steps up to new role
24 Feb 2016 Economics
MoD's Jon Thompson to lead operational side of HMRC – as second perm sec Edward Troup steps up to new role

Thompson to succeed Lin Homer as chief executive, while tax specialist Edward Troup to chair the board's executive committee
BIS Sheffield closure: local MPs condemn department's plans
23 Feb 2016 Economics
BIS Sheffield closure: local MPs condemn department's plans

MPs say closure of BIS Sheffield will result in "loss of vital expertise, shrink the civil service talent pool and reduce the variety of experiences that contribute to policy-making"
Fight against public sector fraud undermined by patchy departmental data – report
23 Feb 2016 Economics
Fight against public sector fraud undermined by patchy departmental data – report

National Audit Office report says Cabinet Office's Fraud, Error and Debt team is "growing into a centre of expertise" – but warns departmental data is "often variable and not sufficient" to keep tabs on the true scale of public sector fraud
Treasury criticised by MPs over call to change Office for Budget Responsibility’s independent forecasts
22 Feb 2016 Economics
Treasury criticised by MPs over call to change Office for Budget Responsibility’s independent forecasts

Treasury committee says 2014 intervention by then-chief secretary Danny Alexander “gives the appearance of a minister trying to lean on the OBR”
HMRC redundancies: PCS union raises strike threat as 150 staff issued with compulsory notices
17 Feb 2016 Economics
HMRC redundancies: PCS union raises strike threat as 150 staff issued with compulsory notices

Public and Commercial Services union mulls industrial action over "unnecessary and inflammatory" compulsory redundancies – but HMRC says it has done "everything possible" to avert the situation
Public Accounts Committee chair Meg Hillier raises further questions about HMRC’s tax assurance commissioners
12 Feb 2016 Economics
Public Accounts Committee chair Meg Hillier raises further questions about HMRC’s tax assurance commissioners

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
Public Accounts Committee: Department for Transport still facing rail capability gaps despite pay flexibility
12 Feb 2016 Economics
Public Accounts Committee: Department for Transport still facing rail capability gaps despite pay flexibility

Transport department has improved its ability to let rail franchises, MPs say, but still lacks the capability to manage them, and does not have a “coherent strategic vision” for the rail system