Operational Delivery

Whitehall commentators and insiders at odds over expertise and timescales for “conscious uncoupling” with Europe

New chief executive and permanent secretary tells MPs that technology issues and new performance management regime are at the root of organisation’s problems

Home Affairs Select Committee report contrasts staffing cuts with a 29% spike in asylum applications

Public Accounts Committee says system is “bedevilled by long standing poor performance” and urges the Ministry of Justice to do more to understand likely impact of cutting resources

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills perm sec Martin Donnelly vows to ensure staff are "fully supported" as he confirms plan to shut Sheffield policy site by January 2018. CSW has full details and reaction from the PCS and FDA unions, Labour, and frontline staff

Labour leader backs long-running aim of the Public and Commercial Services union, that would see an end to departmental chiefs setting their own pay for staff

New report by the UK’s aid watchdog says Department for International Development’s claims on improving access to water and sanitation are credible — but warns department’s focus may be too short-term

Competition and Markets Authority says privatised Land Registry could “degrade the terms of access to its monopoly data in order to weaken competition to its own commercial products”

Online verification service passes service assessment, as Janet Hughes vows to listen and learn as scheme is introduced across departments

Exclusive: As BIS Sheffield staff go on strike over the department's plan to move policy jobs to London, shadow cabinet office minister Louise Haigh denies that MPs are ignoring the need for departmental reform – and urges better local consultation. Photo credit: Amerjit Basi​

Experts question the ability of Queen’s Speech centrepiece to deal with system's core problems