News

Best performing councils could be allowed to run their own academy chains, in a bid to mollify Tory MPs concerned about full academisation

Donnelly says department is spending £168,000 a year on putting Sheffield and London staff up in hotels – but local MP Paul Blomfield says the BIS perm sec's latest answers give only a "half truth"

Public Accounts Committee warns departments still "do not know their future resource needs and will have to resort more often to using consultants and temporary staff"

Government sets out response as Senior Salaries Review Body warns some managers earning less than their juniors – but FDA blasts "sticking plaster" approach

Dawes chairs first meeting of the cross-departmental Civil Service People Board – and vows "more strategic look at reward and pay" and focus on making sure staff have accurate pension info

Microsoft reviews the technology that can help police officers perform their jobs more effectively

Meg Hillier and Iain Wright demand detail on BIS restructuring – after permanent secretary Martin Donnelly says the department cannot give figures while redundancy talks continue

Department points out that shift to include spending on war pensions and intelligence gathering falls within Nato guidelines

Unions welcomed Court of Appeal decision backing 2015 ruling that amendments to DfT's staff handbook were unlawful

Mismatch between school year used by academies and DfE's own accounting period means parliament cannot properly hold the department to account, says the NAO

Current head of the Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat Jonathan Slater heading to the DfE when Chris Wormald moves to Health

Border Force resource budget will be £558.1m for 2016/17 – a cut of 0.4% on last year – but the agency gets a capital spending boost

Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee asks whether civil service in its current form is "appropriate for the twenty-first century" – and whether Whitehall's pay policy for officials is up to scratch

Union general secretary sticks up for the Home Office second perm sec after Home Affairs Committee grilling

Cabinet Office minister Lord Bridges confirms government rethink on plans to end automatic payroll deduction of union fees from public servants

Microsoft demonstrates how several health organisations have successfully transformed their service delivery

Two new data and statistics centres to be created at the Office for National Statistics HQ in Newport, while an “increased London presence” is planned to improve its the organisations relationship with users

Theresa May writes to the Home Affairs Committee chair over Border Force budget, after MPs order second permanent secretary Olly Robbins to face a second evidence session

Home Office permanent secretary Mark Sedwill to face second Public Accounts Committee hearing after PAC chair Meg Hillier brands department's disagreement with the National Audit Office a "farce"

Government's top IT official taking on newly-created role of national technology adviser

George Osborne says Brexit would cause UK to "lose tens of billions of pounds in money for our public services" – but eurosceptic MP Bernard Jenkin says chancellor “should be ashamed of himself” for ordering civil servants to draw up Treasury analysis

Microsoft analyses six common misconceptions about cloud migration

Mental health, musculoskeletal disorders and encouraging healthy lifestyles top priorities for newly-created cross-Whitehall role

Energy secretary Amber Rudd leads tributes as former chief scientific advisor loses battle with stomach cancer