Project Delivery

David Blackall took up the position of acting chief executive of the Major Projects Authority (MPA) on 13 October, after being director of operations for a year.

John Manzoni, the chief executive of the Major Projects Authority, has been named as the new chief executive of the civil service.

HM Passport Office will be abolished and its operations absorbed by the Home Office from 1 October, it has been announced today, and the organisation’s chief executive Paul Pugh will be replaced by a newly-appointed director general.

Senior civil servants often “don’t know what’s going on” with contracts held by their departments and thus spot problems too late, Joshua Reddaway, the National Audit Office’s director for commercial and contracting, has warned.

The Public Accounts Committee has warned the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) that it lacks the data to ensure that local authorities are receiving “value for money with their funding” in some targeted grant schemes.

The £15.8bn Crossrail programme was commended for demonstrating good programme management by a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report, published yesterday.

An official responsible for an IT contracting error which cost the Ministry of Defence (MoD) £70m is no longer working for the department, its permanent secretary Jon Thompson told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on 16 June​.

Civil servants responsible for running major projects will be able to tell parliament when ministers directed them to make particular decisions, under proposals published by the government.

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 number of major projects on track to be delivered on time and to budget has fallen from 32 to 17 over the year, while the number of projects in serious danger of failing has fallen from eight to four, according to new figures from the Major Projects Authority (MPA).

Civil service policymakers still need to improve their focus on outcomes and policy implementation, two top officials have said

Serious questions remain about accountability for Universal Credit in light of Robert Devereux and Iain Duncan Smith’s latest appearance before MPs, the Institute for Government has said.