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The civil service has launched a new range of qualifications for people in the Operations profession.

More than 100 civil servants in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) have got their boots muddy in a series of farm visits aimed at improving their understanding of farming.

The Ministry of Defence’s Defence, Equipment and Support (DE&S) division was this month turned into an arm’s-length body and given an exemption from Treasury salary controls and civil service-wide promotion criteria.

Dr Vanessa Lawrence (pictured) has stepped down as director-general of Ordnance Survey after 14 years in the role.

The Civil Service Commission won’t reform the appointment process for permanent secretaries without the backing of the Public Administration Select Committee (PASC), first civil service commissioner Sir David Normington has told CSW.

The civil service’s record on improving the ethnic diversity of the senior civil service is “disgraceful”, the outgoing permanent secretary diversity champion has said, and he deeply regrets the fact that this month’s deadline to put in place “a clear, strategic approach” to diversity across Whitehall will be missed.

The Labour Party has criticised the Department for Education (DfE) for employing “party ideologues” as senior officials.

The Cabinet Office is using its Contestable Policy Fund to commission research from outside government asking why women are not progressing to the top roles of the civil service.

Oliver Robbins, formerly the deputy national security adviser, has been appointed ‘director general for civil service’ in the Cabinet Office.

The government should send more civil servants to the European Commission (EC) as part of their regular career paths, chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander has said.

HMRC has opened a voluntary redundancy scheme in an effort to lose around 2,000 staff. Three quarters work in personal taxes and compliance, while a further 480 work in debt management and banking.

Prime minister David Cameron has called on civil servants to “talk truth to power and tell it like it is” in order to improve policy.

David Thomas (pictured), commerical director at HMRC and a crown representative, will leave government in mid-December. He resigned his post in September.

Cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood has intervened in a bid to end the political briefings against work and pensions permanent secretary Robert Devereux.

The annual Civil Service People Survey (CSPS) shows increased satisfaction with training opportunities this year, but another fall in scores associated with pay and benefits.

Treasury solicitor Sir Paul Jenkins is to retire next March, Civil Service World has learned.

The Treasury has been “too soft” on public sector pay and needs “to be tougher” in future, Sir Nicholas Macpherson, Treasury permanent secretary, said on Monday. His director general of public spending added that in 2015-16 the new government will want to consider pay as one of its “big issues”.

Head of the civil service Sir Bob Kerslake will use the mid-year permanent secretary performance reviews to discuss with perm secs their progress in improving diversity.

Senior managers should make time to meet apprentices who have joined the civil service under a new Apprenticeship Fast Track scheme, the head of the civil service has said.

William Hague, former executive director for civil service workforce reform in the Cabinet Office, has been appointed chief people officer (CPO) at HM Revenue and Customs.

The civil service has been ranked fifth in the 2013-14 Times Top 100 Graduate Employers in list, published last week.

Three-quarters of civil servants say their department has no way to capture and share information about skills across the organisation, according to a survey carried out by Civil Service World in conjunction with recruitment firm Monster.

Sir Bob Kerslake, the head of the civil service, has rejected claims that structures within Whitehall are preventing open debates about government policy, and emphasised the need for senior leaders to encourage an “open culture in their department where people feel able to raise issues and concerns about progress”.

Michelle Cracknell, currently group commercial director at chartered financial planners LIFT Financial, has been appointed as chief executive of the Pensions Advisory Service (TPAS) today.