News

Five years into his job as the UK's top official, Sir Jeremy Heywood faces his greatest challenge yet – ensuring the civil service he leads is ready for the mammoth task of leaving the European Union. Jess Bowie and Matt Foster sit down with the cabinet secretary to talk Brexit, Theresa May, public sector pay – and the future of Whitehall's reform agenda

Mark Thurston to leave engineering consultancy giant CH2M for new £650k a-year role

Green light from the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee follows hearing in which he said the Government Statistical Service appeared to have been “downgraded” over the years

Estates strategy proposes opening five new large service centres and 50 shared-site operations

Appointments watchdog gives Air Marshal Sir Simon Bollom green light to set up consultancy and accept commissions – one of which involves MoD project

Cabinet Office document suggests a significant chunk of civil service’s targeted 30,000 apprenticeships will already be employed by government departments

Former head of delivery and innovation at the Government Digital Service to take up new role next month

The Institute for Government warns that Brexit could lead to departments slipping on transparency goals — which have already seen a steep decline since David Cameron’s 2010 open government claims

Department for Exiting the European Union "consulting very extensively" on the impact of Brexit to the science sector, says top government adviser, after MPs urge the new department to take on a full-time expert

Ministry of Defence perm sec Stephen Lovegrove offers "expertise" to DExEU as Whitehall readies for Brexit – but downplays impact of European Union departure on the MoD's own work

The map of Whitehall has changed considerably in the months since Stephen Lovegrove left the Department of Energy and Climate Change to become Ministry of Defence perm sec. He tells Colin Marrs about the Brexit help his department can offer, the MoD’s role in boosting Britain’s industry and the staffing cuts he’s tasked with making. Photos by Paul Heartfield

New report from cross-party group of MPs highlights risks to shake up of police, ambulance and fire service comms — but praises low leadership churn at the Home Office

Boss of major outsourcing company says deliberate moves by government, as well as "foolishness" by suppliers, have put too much risk on shoulders of firms dealing with big public sector contracts

 But devolved parliaments in Holyrood, Cardiff and Stormont will not get binding votes on Article 50

Cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood praises outgoing intelligence chief – who tells ministers he is resigning for personal reasons – for his decades of "dedicated public service"

One in four workers in the UK has financial worries. In this article, Elaine Jefferys, Money Services Manager at The Charity for Civil Servants, explains what the organisation is doing to help 

Civil service leaders have long tried to cut sickness absence rates among their staff. But, asks Suzannah Brecknell, are they looking at the full picture?

New appointments in the civil service, UK politics, and public affairs, via our colleagues on Dods People

Maritime and Coastguard Agency deal worth up to 20% for some staff, and a minimum of 2%

As Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States, Kings College London research fellow Joe Devanny looks at the tensions that arise between administrations and considers parallels with Whitehall

Think tank deputy director Julian McCrae says dealing with impact of the ageing society will be a dominant domestic task for Whitehall over the next 15 years

Reducing sickness absence is a vital task for leaders, and it must start with some difficult conversations if real progress is to be made 

Watchdog cites failure to get Treasury agreement for scheme's lifetime funding as contributing factor to the cancellation of a £100m competition

The chief executive of the Crown Commercial Service has told the Public Accounts Committee that he would rather “take time to build a model that endures” than rush to increase the volume of services bought through and by his centralised procurement team