HR

Some ministers are frustrated with civil servants who are slow to implement policies, Richard Heaton, the new permanent secretary of the Cabinet Office, has acknowledged. To overcome this, he said, civil servants must push for more clarity from ministers on whether they have made firm policy decisions, or whether they are waiting for more evidence before proceeding.

Alan Cave, a former director of the Work Programme and other welfare-to-work schemes at the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), has left to join Serco, the outsourced services provider. The DWP will check his job offer against civil service business appointment rules before he is allowed to accept.

Health department permanent secretary Una O’Brien has written to other permanent secretaries asking them to sign up to public health campaigns designed to improve the health of their staff.

The DCMS will cut its staff, forcing them re-apply for their jobs, accept voluntary redundancy or leave by other mutual agreement.

Civil servants should be prepared to see further significant changes to their accountability arrangements, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude told CSW yesterday after he announced plans to publish permanent secretaries’ objectives online.

Civil servants should not be experts in any particular fields, but instead should be generalist administrators, Cabinet Office minister Oliver Letwin said in a speech at the Institute for Government on Monday.

From October a new cyber research institute hosted by University College London will begin a 3.5-year programme to investigate ways to improve cyber security.

Brian Moore left his job as director general of the UK Border Force yesterday, having announced his departure at a Home Affairs Committee hearing in the morning. He has been succeeded on an interim basis by Tony Smith, a senior director at the UK Border Agency (UKBA) who was responsible for the delivery of its Olympic programme.

Cuts to civilian staff at the MoD are falling more heavily on the senior ranks, making the department less top-heavy. Tim Fish reports on the progress of its downsizing efforts compared to those of other departments

The coalition government doesn’t value civil servants, who are increasingly incentivised to pursue higher financial rewards elsewhere, former Ministry of Defence permanent secretary Sir Richard Mottram has said.