Government Tax Profession

David Blackall took up the position of acting chief executive of the Major Projects Authority (MPA) on 13 October, after being director of operations for a year.

Kevin Hyland was appointed as the UK’s first independent anti-slavery commissioner by Home Secretary Theresa May yesterday. 

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) should “marginalise” the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) if disputes cannot “be ended by agreement”, recommends a strategy paper on employee and industrial relations leaked yesterday. 

Hilary Spencer became the new director of Civil Service Learning (CSL) at the end of October, taking over from Jerry Arnott, who retired from the civil service.

Government’s flagship mutual, MyCSP, has failed to pay some retired civil servants their pensions on schedule, after a shift to bring its payment functions in-house hit an IT problem, the Guardian reported on Saturday.

Dame Fiona Caldicott has been appointed as the first national data guardian for health and social care, secretary of state for health Jeremy Hunt will announce today.

The civil service must foster “a more vibrant, competitive marketplace” of government contractors and rebuild its skills in contract management, the government’s outgoing chief operating officer Stephen Kelly has told CSW.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) have now moved their digital Vehicle Management service to private beta.

The first national UK shale college was announced by Business, Enterprise & Energy minister Matthew Hancock today. 

The Home Office have backed a proposal to prevent 17-year-olds being detained in police custody overnight after being charged, it was announced yesterday.

Changes were made last month to how civil servants give evidence to select committees.

UK standards body BSI has published a guide to help standardise data and systems to help local government guide the creation of “smart cities”.

The Department of Health (DH) and Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) did not adequately prepare for the delivery of the Better Care Fund, said the National Audit Office’s (NAO) Planning for Better Care Fund report published today. 

Civil servants working in the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ’s) shared services centres face redundancies and office closures following a seven-year contract to outsource services to Shared Services Connected Limited (SSCL), says Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS). 

The way arm’s-length government is structured and held to account was branded “confused” and “opaque” in a Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) report today, and the Cabinet Office was called upon to bring clarity to how these bodies and organisations work within the civil service.

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) has announced plans to centralise TB testing on farms to ensure greater efficiency from April 2015. 

Referrals from Scottish police to crime agency have risen rapidly

The government should introduce five-year spending plans and independent assessments of its infrastructure plans, former cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell told an audience at the Royal Statistical Society last month. 

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) is launching a new strategy to support and protect bees and other pollinators in the UK. 

The appointment of women to the boards of public bodies has reached a record high, according to the commissioner for public appointments, Sir David Normington.

G-Cloud suppliers and services could be updated every three months, the government revealed yesterday in tender documents for the sixth iteration of the framework.

The Department for Energy & Climate Change (DECC) is asking key figures in the oil and gas industry for their views on the sanctions regime and cost recovery mechanisms of the newly established Oil and Gas Authority (OGA), as part of a consultation on the Wood Review. 

The Marketplace, designed to make it easier for government to do business with IT providers of all sizes, was launched today by Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude.