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Dave Penman, the current deputy general secretary of the FDA, will become the trade union’s next general secretary later this year, it was announced yesterday.

The coalition promises more public contracts for small businesses – but we’ve heard this language before, without seeing much in the way of results. Becky Slack meets the man tasked with turning rhetoric into reality

Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney

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Royal Hospital, Chelsea, London

It's the UK’s only way out of the ‘energy trilemma’, says David Handley.

Andrew Manley, chief executive of the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, looks after the MoD’s £23bn estate – and he’s pushing through one of the most ambitious reform programmes in government. Matt Ross meets him

The chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee has been impressed by the FCO’s work, and applauds many of the coalition’s foreign policies. But he tells Joshua Chambers that the cuts risk damaging our overseas capabilities

The MoD reforms make sense; the carrier cuts do not

The legal clock is ticking for the government, as ministers must decide next week whether to release the NHS transition risk register or appeal again against the Information Tribunal’s decision that it should be published.

The Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) is in competition with ministers’ special advisers, friends, think tanks and other groups, NICS permanent secretary Malcolm McKibbin has said, and must demonstrate to politicians that its advice is the highest quality if ministers “are to properly value our information and our service.”

The Cabinet Office has scaled back plans for a ‘Giving Summit’ due to fears that the event will be hijacked by debate over the income tax relief cap.

The Department for International Development (DfID) has the greatest capability to meet its delivery challenges while the Department of Health (DH) is least well-equipped to do so, the latest round of capability reviews suggest.

The FCO’s target to double trade with developing countries, including Turkey and Brazil, looks as though it has been worked out on the “back of a fag packet,” Richard Ottaway, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, has told CSW.

There must be more clarity on the appointment process for the next governor of the Bank of England,  Andrew Tyrie, chair of the Commons Treasury Committee, has told the chancellor. In his open letter, he also calls for his committee to have a veto.

The government must measure and monitor the costs and benefits of increased transparency and open access to public data, the National Audit Office said in a report published last week.

Former cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell has defended the civil service following attacks from backbench MPs – including Tory MP Douglas Carswell and minister Greg Barker – and newspapers.

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is to redraft its social media guidelines, following an informal consultation event.

A new report raises concerns over the Treasury’s handling of the financial crisis, and sets out ways in which it should be equipping itself to face the eurozone crisis. Colin Marrs explains and tests its key recommendations.

The Ministry of Defence’s land and property management arm, the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), is working on a plan to radically shrink its estate through land sales, its chief executive Andrew Manley has said in an interview with CSW. Manley is also close to tendering for a commercial partner for DIO, in a move that will bring in estates development and sales skills to help the ministry get the best possible price for its asse

Civil servants working with the Public Services Network (PSN) risk finding that they don’t hold data in the right format or location to share it via the network even once the right infrastructure is in pace, the Cabinet Office’s senior policy adviser on PSN has said.

The aircraft carrier replacement programme has been dogged by indecision, delays and rising costs – and now a U-turn looms. Becky Slack examines one of Britain’s biggest and most dysfunctional public procurements.

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Funding has been cut for efforts to broaden student intakes. What now?