HR

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.