News

Comments come as government fights legal challenge arguing it it does not have the power to trigger Article 50 without the consent of parliament

Justice permanent secretary tells MPs that “bearing down on the gap” between spending review targets and actual spending is the largest challenge for his officials, as he stands by the decision to implement spending controls that caused friction between department and prisons inspectorate

Civil service chief John Manzoni (pictured) and Treasury perm sec Tom Scholar say annual updates to the much-criticised Single Departmental Plans will address "big elephant" of Britain's exit from the EU

Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy permanent secretary tells MPs that overall financial envelope for the combined energy and business ministry "hasn't yet been resolved" – and says he hopes majority of merger complete by March

Appointments watchdog Acoba says Kingman had "no direct role in most policies that affected" Legal and General during his time at the Treasury

National Institute of Economic and Social Research study, commissioned by the government, finds “no significant or systematic impact” of the programme, as the Department for Communities and Local Government says it has learned lessons from its first phase

Independent study will form part of new strategy launched by chief scientist Sir Mark Walport (pictured) which aims to put specialists at the heart of government decision-making

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

The spirit of Yes, Minister lives on in the UK's bid to disentangle itself from the European Union, writes Sue Cameron

Tax-collection agency names commissioner successor to Edward Troup as part of accountability rejig

Public Accounts Committee says cross departmental snapshot must be produced more quickly, include more comparative data, and be more risk-focused in the wake of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union

 

Public Health England’s many responsibilities range from obesity to global pandemics, but public protection and promoting healthy life choices are at the heart of them all. Mark Leftly does the rounds with PHE’s chief executive, Duncan Selbie

Tax authority's chief exec tells MPs that Whitehall has clear lessons to learn from failings with outsourced tax credit checking deal

HMRC says the new director will be responsible for IT transformation and cloud strategy

Foreign secretary Boris Johnson’s first select committee grilling provides laughs and helpful sketches of flags, but little policy insight

The outspoken former chair of the Public Accounts Committee chews the fat with Suzannah Brecknell

Leaving the European Union will be a massive task. But the government also needs a strategy for cutting day-to-day spending while maintaining, or indeed improving, the quality of public services

Public Accounts Committee criticises decision to class new carrier bag charges as a deregulatory measure, as officials indicate that many more regulations will soon come under scope of government's Business Impact Target

During my many years inside government I met ministers from all parties who, privately, agreed that universal Winter Fuel Payments were a costly and untargeted indulgence which we could ill afford

Jacqui Gavin tells Jonathan Owen about her role as chair of a:gender, the civil service’s support network for staff who are transgender, and rates Whitehall’s progress on diversity

As departments work hard to deliver reforms and savings, how can they ensure opportunities for connecting are identified and exploited? That was the question put before participants at a recent Civil Service World round table. Mark Smulian reports 

Transport permanent secretary Philip Rutnam's request for a ministerial direction over funding guarantees for the controversial project to build a new bridge over the Thames brings the total number of directions since last May to seven - more than twice the number under the coalition government

Government Digital Service's director of data is the latest in a line of senior leaders to leave the the central team

As the civil service tries to put meat on the bones of its social mobility strategy, Matt Foster meets the people trying to make the organisation more welcoming to staff from working class backgrounds – and shake off Whitehall’s “white, male and Oxbridge” image for good