Author Profile

Permanent Secretary and Clerk of the Crown in Chancery, Ministry of Justice

Permanent Secretary, Department for Communities and Local Government

On 1 January, Sir Bob will become the Head of the Civil Service

The Cabinet Office has launched a new website where public sector workers can submit suggestions on how to make their organisations more efficient. The website, called 'Tell Us How', was launched last week and is open to all public sector staff - from frontline workers to senior civil servants.

Civil service leaders should take more risks when making promotions to bring a wider range of skills into senior teams, environment permanent secretary Bronwyn Hill has said.

Seven officials have been appointed as crown commercial representatives, and asked to oversee cross-Whitehall relationships with a set of key suppliers. Martin Bennett interviews them, and assesses the significance of the initiative.

Leadership guru Steve Radcliffe has spent years coaching the cabinet secretary, and is now working with several permanent secretaries while planning a series of free lectures for civil servants. Ben Willis catches up with him.

In her role as chair of the environmental audit committee, Joan Walley MP is responsible for scrutinising cross-departmental work on sustainability. Edward Davie hears her take aim at the coalition's green performance.

The Institute for Government’s recent report on policymaking called for civil servants to be more robust in stepping forward to challenge flawed policies. Mark Rowe bounces its ideas off a set of former ministers.

Relations between the Ministry of Defence and its select committee have not always been easy. But its chairman James Arbuthnot tells Ben Willis that MoD officials shouldn’t view the committee corridor as enemy territory.

This week’s public servant is a technician working for the BBC World Service

Chief operating officer, Efficiency and Reform Group, Cabinet Office

Government chief information officer, Cabinet Office

Second permanent secretary, HM Treasury

Head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service and Secretary to the Executive, Northern Ireland Executive

Permanent secretary, Welsh Assembly Government

Permanent secretary, Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Civil service budgets will be a third smaller by 2014-15. Matt Ross, Suzannah Brecknell and Joshua Chambers examine how the government hopes to ensure that the cuts produce reforms, not just retrenchment.

The new ‘Vacancy Filling Scheme’ promises to radically open up the civil service jobs markets within each of the nine English regions. Ben Willis reports on an enlightened scheme launched at an unfortunate time.

As central government spending falls, transport minister Norman Baker tells Joshua Chambers that if Whitehall gives local councils and businesses enough space and freedom, they’ll pick up the baton on green transport.

One of only two departments with protected budgets, DfID is in a happy position – but international development secretary Andrew Mitchell will still bring reform, finds Ben Willis.

As the Olympics looms, DCMS will play a growing role on the Whitehall stage. Ian Pickering examines the department’s priorities

Having sketched out the Tories’ planned cuts in opposition, Philip Hammond must now implement some of them in his new ministerial post. Colin Marrs reports

Martha Lane Fox, the government’s online access tsar, got a shock last week when No 10 axed her planned digital services unit. But she’s already busy trying to catch people’s interest in web access, she tells Anthony Alexander

With seven years’ experience as a neighbourhood warden, this week’s interviewee now manages a team of wardens in a major English city

No-one now doubts that Britain faces an era of public spending cuts – but we won’t be the first country to have dealt with them. Matthew O’Toole finds some encouraging examples of how other nations have coped in tough times.

Sir Richard Mottram enjoyed a wide-ranging and colourful Whitehall career, though he missed out on the top job. He talks to Matthew O’Toole about a life in the civil service, and gives his views on how best to manage reform

The government’s £220bn procurement spend offers plenty of potential for big savings. But as Emma Clarke finds, if government agencies are to make those savings, they’ll have to start working together much more closely.

For a decade, the devolved administrations have been altering services to suit their own populations. But as Shafik Meghji finds, when services diverge, the resulting cross-border tensions can hit service users.

Cabinet Office minister Tessa Jowell has put aside her campaigning work to answer six key questions for CSW. Innovation, reform and careful planning, she says, will be required to cut costs whilst protecting services

IT chief John Suffolk may have taken a hands-off and inclusive approach to the development of his profession, but Ruth Keeling discovers that his attitude is not entirely laissez faire 

April saw the launch of a scheme which will result in departments paying tariffs for all their carbon emissions. The Environment Agency’s Tony Grayling tells Ruth Keeling about a radical move to improve sustainability

If the election produces a hung Parliament, civil servants will look to Scotland, which has seen both a coalition and a minority government. Ruth Keeling gets some tips from its permanent secretary, Sir John Elvidge

Jenny Willott, the Liberal Democrat spokeswoman on the civil service, wants to defuse the row over public sector pensions with a fact-finding commission. She tells Ruth Keeling about the Lib Dems’ ideas for Whitehall

As a civil service profession, psychology is embryonic. But NOMS head of forensic psychology Jo Bailey leads the largest cadre of psychologists in government. By Matthew O’Toole

Over the years, various public bodies have tried to roll back the tide of Whitehall regulation – with little success. The latest is the Regulatory Policy Committee: Ben Willis reports on an attempt to embarrass erring departments.