Government Tax Profession

Civil servants responsible for running major projects will be able to tell parliament when ministers directed them to make particular decisions, under proposals published by the government.

The government’s reluctance to devolve powers away from London has given a boost to the campaign for Scottish independence, Graham Allen, chair of the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee, has said.

The UK’s new national statistician and chief executive of the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA), John Pullinger, has pledged to back statisticians across government if they feel that their figures are being misused by politicians.

Civil servants should win and maintain ministers’ trust to ensure their advice is “taken seriously”, according to Martin Donnelly, permanent secretary at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Policy officials should consider alternatives to regulation “early in policymaking”, the National Audit Office warned in a report published on 30 June.

Government spending on outsourcing contracts rose by 23% to £1.2bn between 2012 and 2013, bringing the two-year total to £2.3bn, while expenditure in most other sectors fell by between 1% and 20%, according to analysis of public sector transactions carried out by the Institute for Government (IfG).

Simon Case, the prime minister’s private secretary, will be the new head of the Implementation Unit, cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood has told CSW.

The Department for Work and Pensions’ failure to pilot its Personal Independence Payment (PIP) programme has led to delays, backlogs and “unnecessary distress for claimants”, according to a report published today by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

The former UK Border Agency (UKBA) was doomed to fail due to its sheer scale and constant media attention, its former chief executive Rob Whiteman has said.

Civil servants earning £100,000 or more who take redundancy could be forced to pay back some of the cash if they return to the same part of the public sector within a year, under legislation announced in this month's Queen’s Speech.​

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has committed to spending up to £10bn on the government’s Help to Buy scheme without establishing whether it represents the most effective way of using taxpayers’ money, the Public Accounts Committee have said in a report published on 18 July.

The outgoing National Statistician has called for an end to the practice of giving ministers access to official statistics before their release.