News

The Lords’ Select Committee on the Inquiries Act 2005 urges the government to set up a specialist unit to handle public inquiries, in a report published this week.

The Commons’ Education Committee is calling on the government to develop a national strategy for care provision in its report on residential children’s homes published yesterday.

Andy Nelson, chief information officer at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), is quitting the civil service after four years in Whitehall. He will stay until the summer to “ensure continuity and an effective hand-over to his successor”, a DWP spokesperson said.

Departments have been given permission to increase pay for senior civil servants by up to 1%, Danny Alexander, chief secretary to the Treasury, announced today.

Security firm G4S has agreed to refund the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) £108.9m, plus VAT, after over-charging the government on contracts to electronically monitor criminals.

The Department for Education (DfE) came under fire last week over claims that trusts running academies are handing contracts to their friends and relatives, or to companies in which they have a financial interest.

The Labour Party has criticised the Department for Education (DfE) for employing “party ideologues” as senior officials.

The Care Quality Commission’s budget shrank to the point where there was “insufficient resource available for us to do the job” of inspecting care, its chief executive has told CSW – but the Department of Health is now providing extra funds to support a new inspection model.

Government contracts should be audited by the National Audit Office (NAO) to improve transparency about public service outsourcing, business organisation the CBI has said.

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The former chief executive of construction giant Balfour Beatty, Ian Tyler, has been made the crown representative responsible for managing relations between Whitehall and outsourcing giant G4S.

With the environment department badly hit in the Spending Review, many of its agencies saw hefty cuts. Joshua Chambers speaks to Dave Webster, chief executive of Natural England, on how the quango wielded its secateurs.

The prime minister should not be given the power to select permanent secretaries, the Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) says in a report published today.

The Care Quality Commission exists to inspect quality in our health and care services – but when chief executive David Behan joined it in 2012, its own services were in turmoil. He tells Matt Ross what he’s doing to turn it around.

Extreme rain, storms and tides have combined to overwhelm our flood defences – but defences can only ever be a backstop. Stuart Watson explores how public agencies could work together to minimise the danger of floods.

The Treasury should consider implementing new “funding mechanisms that better incentivise departments to recover debt” as part of a clear strategy for reducing the amount of overdue debt owed to central government, according to a report published last week by the National Audit Office.

The Department for Education (DfE) has appointed 28-year-old Tom Shinner as its director of strategy and performance.

The government last week published advice given by HM Treasury permanent secretary Sir Nicholas Macpherson, cautioning the chancellor against a currency union with an independent Scotland.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has continued to improve staff engagement this year, while the Department for Education (DfE) has presided over the largest yearly fall, the 2013 Civil Service People Survey results show. The results mean that the DWP’s engagement score has now overtaken the DfE’s, at 54 compared to 51.

The majority of civil servants – 61% – have not seen faster progress on reforms to create a modern workplace since this agenda was highlighted as a priority by the cabinet secretary last July, according to a survey carried out by CSW.

In cinemas now

The new Competition & Markets Authority will referee our markets, boosting competition to support both economic growth and government outsourcing projects. Chief executive Alex Chisholm talks to Suzannah Brecknell

The Government Digital Service (GDS) plans to replace CloudStore – the electronic marketplace which allows government and wider public sector organisations to buy cloud-based services – with a new portal that has greater capacity and new features.