HR

Civil Service Board backs move to let key commercial staff work directly for the centre of government, potentially sitting outside of departmental pay and grading

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills perm sec Martin Donnelly vows to ensure staff are "fully supported" as he confirms plan to shut Sheffield policy site by January 2018. CSW has full details and reaction from the PCS and FDA unions, Labour, and frontline staff

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