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Departmental expenditure limits (DEL) will need to fall by 3.8 per cent per year in the first two years of the next Parliament – even more than the current annual cuts of 2.3 per cent – unless there are deeper cuts to annual managed expenditure (AME) budgets, chancellor George Osborne said in his Budget last week.

The launch of the Cabinet Office’s flagship public sector mutual, My Civil Service Pension (MyCSP), has been repeatedly delayed and it will now have to spin out from the public sector in the next financial year, CSW has learned.

Permanent secretaries should challenge ministers more, including by requesting more formal ‘ministerial directions’, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude has told Civil Service World. Meanwhile, Public Accounts Committee chair Margaret Hodge has called for a debate over civil servants’ accountability, suggesting to CSW that more civil servants should be held accountable to Parliament, rather than solely to their ministers.

Communities and Local Government Committee chair Clive Betts has known Bob Kerslake for years, and doesn’t doubt his commitment to localism – but some departments are less enthusiastic, he tells Joshua Chambers

As head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, Dr Malcolm McKibbin has a very challenging job. However, as he tells Joshua Chambers, the main challenge has evolved from ending the Troubles to stimulating business growth

Government must remember the cost of gathering public sector data before it gives it away in its ‘open data’ initiative, Ordnance Survey (OS) chief executive Vanessa Lawrence has told CSW.

Permanent secretaries’ objectives are likely to be expanded, with responsibility for cross-cutting government agendas – such as encouraging economic growth – included in their appraisal systems, cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood has said. Meanwhile, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude told CSW that permanent secretaries and ministers should be accountable to Parliament for the policies they helped to implement even when they have moved departments or retired.

When things go wrong in government, a ministerial scapegoat is often sought. Joshua Chambers examines the convention of ministerial responsibility – and asks whether it still holds the power to unseat secretaries of state.

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The group tasked with reforming the civil service Fast Stream wants to introduce a right to undertake training and secondments, the group’s head Lin Homer has told CSW. She hopes to make the changes quickly, and suggested that they may affect all current fast streamers.

A poll by CSW, carried out in partnership with analytics company SAS, has found that 74 per cent of senior civil servants and 73 per cent of all civil servants believe that departments and agencies would be better incentivised to tackle fraud and error if they were allowed to keep some of the savings.

After nearly 22 months, the Commons select committees’ first elected chairs have had plenty of time to size up their Whitehall counterparts. Joshua Chambers asked them how the departments they watch have been performing

The Fast Stream, which shaped many of today’s perm secs, is set to be drastically reformed. Joshua Chambers examines the emerging proposals to change how departments shape the future leaders of the civil service.

Departmental select committee chairs have provided mixed reviews of the departments they scrutinise for a Civil Service World Special Report, which has found that 40 per cent of them are dissatisfied with departments’ responses to their reports.

Subtlety is a rare but valuable characteristic. A little nuance never does any harm, while a gung-ho machismo can get you in all sorts of trouble.

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude wants the Fast Stream programme to be halved to two years, but plans have been delayed because departments are pushing for a compromise, CSW has learned.

Finance skills should be central to the civil service reforms now being developed by head of the civil service Sir Bob Kerslake, the head of the government finance profession has said. Speaking in a CSW interview, Department of Health finance chief Richard Douglas said: “I’m hoping and expecting that Bob Kerslake will take [finance skills] forward as a key plank of civil service reform.”

All departments, agencies and non-departmental bodies will have to commission private companies to conduct ‘spend-recovery’ accounts in search of fraudulent or mistaken payments, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude announced on Monday at the launch of the government’s Fraud and Error Strategy.

While some financiers caused our current economic difficulties, others might just provide investments that our public services desperately require. Joshua Chambers examines some unusual ways of generating funding.

Richard Douglas, the head of the Government Finance Profession, believes that finance skills will soon be essential for career progression across the senior civil service. He explains why to Joshua Chambers.

Frontline: Forensic medical examiner A doctor working with the police worries about the effect of outsourcing on the care of vulnerable people

The cost of government’s “bonfire of the quangos” will be nearly twice the amount estimated by departments, according to a report published by the National Audit Office (NAO) last week.

Leading figures in local government argued that there’s no evidence of the economic need for reform of the planning system at the Local Government Summit last week.

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The National Audit Office (NAO) has defended its report on the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) Work Programme, after welfare minister Chris Grayling said that the NAO analysis was “partially based on guesswork.”

Many public sector projects struggle to stay on time and on budget, and civil servants are under growing pressure to improve their game. Joshua Chambers asks the experts how government can avoid project management pitfalls.

An English teacher in a comprehensive school in a deprived area thinks Ofsted frameworks don’t help poorer pupils

The head of education at the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, Adrian Pulham, tells Joshua Chambers that finance skills are more important than ever in government – and that they must be improved.

Keith Vaz is the chair of the home affairs committee, and an acerbic critic of the Home Office and UKBA. Joshua Chambers hears him analyse the Home Office’s weaknesses – and give a rendition of a song about white flags.

The Freedom of Information Act divides both politicians and officials: some find it inconvenient and embarrassing; others praise its contribution to transparency. With reform looming, Joshua Chambers examines the arguments.

The Foreign Office once had a library filled with learned tomes; now the room is empty but for a lonely-looking snake. Joshua Chambers learns about the ‘Diplomatic Excellence’ programme, designed to restore lost expertise.

The head of the only department to receive a real-terms increase in its budget, DfID permanent secretary Mark Lowcock, tells Joshua Chambers how he intends to get maximum bang for the taxpayers’ bucks.

When he warned of impending economic catastrophe in 2008, Alistair Darling prioritised rigorous honesty above short-term political advantage. Joshua Chambers finds that he’s still just as determined to voice awkward truths

A PE teaching coordinator laments the changes to school sport which he believes have undermined an effective network.

In a Special Report analysing six years of recruitment data, Joshua Chambers reports on how senior civil service recruitment has changed – and considers how the next generation of SCS are likely to emerge.