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Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude has said that the civil service is moving away from an “old-fashioned” culture of “presenteeism”, and argued that remote working can increase productivity.

Leading politicians are engaged in a “conspiracy” to prevent reforms to the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA), Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) chair Bernard Jenkin has told CSW.

Moira Wallace, the permanent secretary of the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) resigned last month, days before a critical report by the Commons’ Energy and Climate Change Committee (ECC) was published. The report, which examined her department’s flagship Energy Bill, said that continued rows between DECC and the Treasury have made the policy “unworkable.”

Secretaries of state are to be given direct input into senior civil service appraisals so that ministers don’t suspect civil servants of feeling they can “pick and choose” which coalition policies they implement, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude has told Civil Service World.

The changes to the Fast Stream outlined in the Civil Service Reform Plan last week are a “brave experiment,” Mike Emmott from the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development has told CSW.

Sir Mark Walport is to become the government’s next chief scientific adviser in April 2013, it has been announced. He was chosen via an open competition, and replaces Sir John Beddington.

The FDA trade union “flatly rejects” proposals to introduce performance-related pay for the senior civil service, the union’s general secretary Dave Penman has told CSW.

The new job of director general for civil service reform has been awarded on an interim basis to Andrew Campbell from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), Civil Service World has learned.

Permanent secretaries will be covered by the new rules on performance set out in the Civil Service Reform Plan, Sharon White, director general of public spending in the Treasury, told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Monday. This means that the poorest performing 10 per cent of permanent secretaries will be identified and given extra support and training.

The government’s reform plans fall well short of the aim of creating a more professional civil service, says Dai Hudd