Permanent secretary Sir Simon Fraser tells CSW the FCO must have “a comparable offer” with other departments

BIS perm sec Martin Donnelly requests rare "letter of direction" from minister Sajid Javid after raising value-for-money concerns over plan to gift extra shares to Royal Mail staff

Study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies raises concern over private sector's ability to absorb public sector job losses

National Audit Office finds £3.2bn training programme will "not be running at full capacity until 2019"

Security review calls for “comprehensive and comprehensible new law” to govern security agencies’ surveillance powers

Report by the National Audit Office says the centre of government must do more to support departments struggling to manage the changing Whitehall workforce

Austin Mitchell reviews a new book examining the impact of decades of reform to central government 

Stereotyped as masters of the dark arts, what role do special advisers really play? As a new crop arrives in Whitehall, Sarah Aston asked some veteran spads to share their war stories

Former cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell calls on new Cabinet Office minister Matt Hancock to scrap a rule which means fast streamers must change jobs every six months

Official in charge of Scotland’s fair work agenda admits set-up of Scottish civil service keeps out applicants with criminal convictions

FDA and PCS unions sound the alarm over proposals to end "six figure" public sector redundancy pay

Professor Timothy Richard Dafforn – entrepreneur in residence for synthetic biology – is named as new chief scientific adviser for BIS at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills