Policy

Policy officials should consider alternatives to regulation “early in policymaking”, the National Audit Office warned in a report published on 30 June.

The Education Funding Agency (EFA) needs to get “to grips with effective oversight to improve public confidence in the system,” the Public Accounts Committee warned in a report.

The Department for Work and Pensions’ failure to pilot its Personal Independence Payment (PIP) programme has led to delays, backlogs and “unnecessary distress for claimants”, according to a report published today by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

The former UK Border Agency (UKBA) was doomed to fail due to its sheer scale and constant media attention, its former chief executive Rob Whiteman has said.

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has committed to spending up to £10bn on the government’s Help to Buy scheme without establishing whether it represents the most effective way of using taxpayers’ money, the Public Accounts Committee have said in a report published on 18 July.

The outgoing National Statistician has called for an end to the practice of giving ministers access to official statistics before their release.

Bernard Jenkin, chair of the Public Administration Select Committee, has been championing an inquiry into the future of the civil service – but former cabinet secretaries Lord Gus O'Donnell and Andrew Turnbull believe that any inquiry should also encompass politicians’ failures. CSW editor Matt Ross maps out a path to a very big think about our system of government

An inquiry needs to be held into the political process and the flaws in our system of government, two former cabinet secretaries have told Civil Service World. Their call comes after some politicians and other key figures have called for an inquiry into the future of the civil service.

Policy Exchange, a right-leaning think-tank, has called on the government to spend £875m on digitally educating the 6.2m people who aren’t currently using the internet, bringing Britain’s entire population online by 2020.

Ministers commissioning policy advice directly from external bodies is “dangerous, because it risks giving the job to a body that is not objective,” former cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell has said.

The government’s new horizon-scanning programme is “flawed” and contains “substantial weaknesses,” according to the Science and Technology Select Committee.

The government should conduct a comprehensive review of its interventions in Afghanistan in 2001, the Commons’ Defence Committee said in a report on Tuesday. This should encompass not just military operations, but all the UK’s work under the NATO and UN missions.