Government Tax Profession

Permanent secretaries have less than a month to deliver work to boost diversity in their departments, the government’s new diversity champion Sir Simon Fraser revealed at this year’s Civil Service Diversity & Equality Awards.

The shortlist of civil servants nominated for the 2014 Civil Service Awards, held in collaboration with the Cabinet Office, was announced today.

Civil servants from UK government departments and agencies as well as the Welsh government have today joined a national walk-out over pay.

The prime minister will be able to pick permanent secretaries out of a candidate shortlist from December this year, under new rules announced today – with the first competition to be held under the new process that to replace Sir Bob Kerslake in February as permanent secretary of the Department for Communities and Local Government.

The civil service has not gone far enough in appointing women to senior positions, the Treasury’s second permanent secretary Sharon White told a conference audience last month.

This year’s civil service Diversity and Equality Award winners have been named at a ceremony in Petty France today.

Departments will “get absolutely nowhere” on reforming their services if they don’t have their own in-house digital capability, Paul Shetler, chief digital officer at the Ministry of Justice (furthest right), has warned.

Civil servants could see their offices move from central London to outer suburbs under plans to further shrink the government’s presence on Whitehall, it was announced last week.

John Manzoni, the chief executive of the Major Projects Authority, has been named as the new chief executive of the civil service.

Susanne Baker, senior climate & environment policy adviser at EEF, the Manufacturer’s Organisation

The government is considering extending the Social Value Act to include goods, works, infrastructure and public assets, under a Cabinet Office review.

The Tories will continue Whitehall cuts at the same pace for at least two further years if re-elected for another term in office, chancellor George Osborne has announced today.

Civil servants are due to take part in a one-day strike over pay on Wednesday, 15 October, it has been announced today.

A total of 200 18-21-year-olds are this week starting the government’s civil service Fast Track apprenticeship scheme.

Senior civil servants often “don’t know what’s going on” with contracts held by their departments and thus spot problems too late, Joshua Reddaway, the National Audit Office’s director for commercial and contracting, has warned.

Civil servants who challenge ministers’ ill thought-through policy ideas are generally blamed for blocking change and become the “butt of hostility”, former Labour minister Charles Clarke has said.

The new chief executive of the civil service is likely to "lack the authority he/she needs to help drive forward real reform”, according to shadow Cabinet Office minister Michael Dugher.

Sir Jeremy Heywood has this week taken over the role of head of the civil service from Sir Bob Kerslake, who in July announced his forthcoming retirement.

Former Credit Suisse chief information officer Magnus Falk has this week started his new role as government deputy chief technology officer, one of 100 senior digital specialists brought into government over the past year.

More than half of permanent secretaries attended Oxbridge, compared to less than 1% of the public as a whole, according to a report by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission which criticises the lack of diversity among the people running the country.

The new chief executive of the civil service will only have “sufficient authority” if he/she reports directly to the prime minister, rather than Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood, John Healey, co-founder of new think-tank GovernUp, has said.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has denied telling its employees how to vote in the Scottish referendum, after its permanent secretary Robert Devereux issued department-wide guidance on the topic.

Members of the public will be able to search the government property portfolio from today, using a new tool that maps all government-held land and buildings.