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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.

Civil servants believe their employers failed to manage talent effectively during their redundancy programmes, a CSW survey has found, with the result that many talented and highly-skilled individuals left the civil service whilst poor performers were allowed to remain.

Two thirds of civil servants believe that culture is the biggest obstacle to introducing flexible working in the civil service, a CSW survey has found.

The government is facing growing problems recruiting into key posts because civil service pay levels are too low, the Civil Service Commission (CSC), has warned.

The government’s Fast Stream programme, which welcomes around 600 graduates into the civil service every year, has scooped a national award.

Civil service project leaders – ‘Senior Responsible Owners’ (SROs) – are to be held directly accountable to parliamentary select committees, Sir Bob Kerslake announced today.

The head of the Major Project Authority (MPA), David Pitchford, today announced that he is stepping down. He will leave in September to return to his home in Australia.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has criticised the failure of departments to clearly record the use of confidentiality clauses in severance payments to public sector workers.