Operational Delivery

Justice secretary Michael Gove tells MPs that Just Solutions International – the commercial arm of the National Offender Management Service – will abandon deal to advise Saudi Arabia on running of prisons

Lord Adonis to head up new body modelled on the independent Office for Budget Responsibility

Find out which civil servants and departmental teams are in the running for an award

Jeremy Heywood says "absolutely vital" digital team moving to "next phase" with departure of chief Mike Bracken

Civil service will get smaller, says Cabinet secretary — but number of departments will “probably” stay the same

Management consultants looking at "operating costs across the department and partner organisations", says business secretary, but none "working directly" on its response to the Spending Review

Latest report by the public accounts committee warns police could bear brunt of "cost shunting" by other departments, but Home Office says it is working on reforms to make the system more "fair, robust and transparent"

Major business lobby group sets out stall ahead of government-wide Spending Review – with shared services, digitisation, and payment-by-results top of the agenda

PCS and Prospect members at the Natural Environment Research Council take half-day action over 1% cap and progression pay move

PM highlights achievements of Whitehall's digital team as he argues government has "moral imperative" to "streamline" public services

New watchdog the Single Source Regulations Office seeks to overhaul MoD deals with single-source contractors

Care Quality Commission chief David Behan tells NHS Innovation Expo that public reassurance vital after data on patients attending sexual health treatment centre accidentally shared

Outgoing digital chief Mike Bracken cites "stresses and strains" of the job – but says Government as a Platform plans still being assessed

What’s life like at the sharp end of public services? A modern foreign languages teacher tells Sarah Aston about the pros and cons of changes to the schools system

Public and Commercial Services union makes "strong representations" to tax authority about "timescale and process" of 90-day talks, which department says may result in compulsory redundancies

Ofqual’s chief regulator announces plans to step down in February 2016

Charity has reportedly told the government it will close in spite of latest £3m Cabinet Office grant

BIS director general Bernadette Kelly to fill Clare Moriarty’s role as rail director general at Department for Transport

Cabinet Office announces that Bill Crothers – who oversaw the set-up of the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) – is to leave post, with search for successor already underway

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs appoints Emma Howard Boyd to agency

As the purse strings tighten, government departments are seeing the benefits of working together. Tim Gibson reports from a CSW roundtable that explored how best to make collaboration happen

Treasury says spending review - set for November 25 - will be a chance to "review the role of government"

PCS members in two-day walkout over "oppressive" Universal Credit working conditions, but department says plans in place for "smooth running" of the service

Department for Work and Pensions accounts qualified again as NAO says fraud and error in the benefits system "remains unacceptably high"