News

Sir David Nicholson was appointed chief executive of the NHS in 2006. He retained his position after the coalition came to power and pursued a set of reforms so big, he said, that you could probably see them from space.

The £15.8bn Crossrail programme was commended for demonstrating good programme management by a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report, published yesterday.

Sir Philip Dilley has been confirmed as the new chairman of the Environment Agency, and will take up the post on 8 September 2014.

Like Robert the Bruce’s persistent spider, the people trying to reform the way the Ministry of Defence buys and manages equipment keep returning to the fray. Colin Marrs reports

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) “should urgently invest in its operational, technical and commercial skills,” a report by the National Audit Office has found.

Manchester City Council has signed off an extra £1.2m of spending on the costs of moving its data centre to a new location – adding an extra third to the original budget.

The Home Office has managed to absorb the former UK Border Agency back into the Department without a significant fall in performance, according to a National Audit Office (NAO) report published today.

In the first of a series of articles examining digital services, Tim Gibson explains online voter registration – a new IT system lying at the very heart of our democracy.

The Cabinet Office amended and then broke its own rules for awarding grants, a National Audit Office (NAO) published today explains.

John Pullinger has this month started his new job as the UK’s new national statistician. He tells Winnie Agbonlahor about his priorities in the role.

The UK Border Agency (UKBA), which was this year abolished by home secretary Theresa May, was “never going to work”, its former chief Rob Whiteman told the Public Administration Select Committee on 17 June.

A whip round June's interesting committee reports and hearings, with Winnie Agbonlahor

The government has found cross-departmental working more “problematic” than improving coordination at the centre, cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on 7 July.​

Top New Zealand official Iain Rennie is reforming a system often lauded in the UK. Suzannah Brecknell reports

An official responsible for an IT contracting error which cost the Ministry of Defence (MoD) £70m is no longer working for the department, its permanent secretary Jon Thompson told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on 16 June​.

Sir Bob Kerslake spoke of his commitment to public service today, as he told an audience of civil servants about his retirement next year.

Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg today told an audience of civil servants that ministers have a “duty to acknowledge and respect your role as the backbone of the public infrastructure, that has to survive the ebb and flow as governments come and go.”

Former cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell has welcomed the government’s plan to recombine the jobs of cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, telling Radio 4’s Today programme this morning that “having one person doing both jobs is a big step forward.”

The Committee on Standards in Public Life thinks it knows how to halt the seemingly endless scandals about outsourcing. Report by Colin Marrs. Illustration by John Levers

Sir Bob Kerslake (pictured) is stepping down from his role as head of the civil service in the autumn, and is to retire as permanent secretary of the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) at the end of February 2015, it has been announced today.

Special units at the centre of government “should be used sparingly and cannot be a substitute for increasing core capacity at the centre”, an Institute for Government (IfG) report published on 9 July has warned.

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Cornerstone provide advice on effective approaches for learning management.

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