HR

Department for Business perm sec Martin Donnelly arrives to brief staff on possible St Paul's Place closure plans – as strike action continues

Latest revisions to the tax authority's Single Departmental Plan include customer service targets and aim of getting staff engagement up to civil service-wide average

National Audit Office says customer service hit by tax authority's decision to reduce staff numbers before online switch was ready – but HMRC says it is now offering its "best service levels in years"

Labour leader backs long-running aim of the Public and Commercial Services union, that would see an end to departmental chiefs setting their own pay for staff

Public and Commercial Services union general secretary says union must have “very important" debate about its future direction, and says PCS is "still standing" in spite of plans to end deduction of union fees from civil servants' pay packets

Civil service diversity champion wants more info on levels of awareness and take-up of workplace adjustments among disabled officials – and says tackling bullying and harassment will require a change in culture

New appointments in the civil service, UK politics, and public affairs, via our colleagues on Dods People

Report by MPs on the justice committee warns that prison safety "has deteriorated further and continues to do so"

Cabinet secretary and head of the civil service Sir Jeremy Heywood responds after critics point to lack of female leaders at the very top of Whitehall

Former Department for Work and Pensions permanent secretary Leigh Lewis finds that Martin Stanley’s new book How to be a Civil Servant offers a valuable guide, but not quite the whole picture

Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union announces one-day strike action of policy officials set to be affected by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills' plan to close its office in Sheffield

New appointments in the civil service, UK politics, and public affairs, via our colleagues on Dods People

Nearly half of senior managers say they cannot work flexibly, according to a survey by the FDA union — despite a range of policies to encourage better work-life balance

Union general secretary rounds on plans for another overhaul of the Civil Service Compensation Scheme, with planned changes "all the more galling” after 2010's negotiations

General secretary of union for senior civil servants says staff cuts taking a toll on membership numbers — but defends move to extend reach with new Keystone initiative

Interim chief Martin Jones has position made permanent

FDA union calls for civil servants to be paid for all overtime, as survey shows an increase in the number of officials working above their contracted hours

Cabinet Office’s Iain Patterson cautions against changing departmental tech for the sake of it, as he sheds more light on ‘Ocean Liner’ review of big government IT contracts

Study by Tech UK and Dods Research finds gap between vision and reality on departments' digital transformation plans

New appointments in the civil service, UK politics, and public affairs, via our colleagues on Dods People

Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee chair Bernard Jenkin says legislation may be needed to make non-executive directors brought into government feel less disposable

Politicians are fond of bandying around statistics to boost their arguments – but how much of what they say is informed by facts? Suzannah Brecknell meets Full Fact director Will Moy who explains his mission to rid public debate of “nonsense”

The Public Accounts Committee wants the most senior civil servants to play a greater role in approving major projects, and to publish their assessments of whether policies offer value for money

PCS study of almost 25,000 civil servants, including managers, finds widespread concern about the way performance management is working in practice