Operational Delivery

Five government departments will be required to provide clearer guidance and complaints procedures for staff keen to set up public service mutuals, under new proposals designed to maintain the momentum behind the government’s public service reform agenda.

Fraud is widespread at government contractors A4e and Working Links, their former head of audit, Eddie Hutchinson, has said.

The Department for International Development (DfID) has the greatest capability to meet its delivery challenges while the Department of Health (DH) is least well-equipped to do so, the latest round of capability reviews suggest.

Robert Devereux has defended plans to charge single parents for work carried out by the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (CMEC).

Select committees are looking for a proper argument

Departmental select committee chairs have provided mixed reviews of the departments they scrutinise for a Civil Service World Special Report, which has found that 40 per cent of them are dissatisfied with departments’ responses to their reports.

The National Audit Office (NAO) has defended its report on the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) Work Programme, after welfare minister Chris Grayling said that the NAO analysis was “partially based on guesswork.”

The incoming head of the civil service, Sir Bob Kerslake, has warned civil servants that in 2012 ministers will expect to agree and enact reforms across the civil service.

Sir Gus O'Donnell will meet with public accounts committee chair Margaret Hodge following an evidence session in which she raised concerns over the accountability of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).