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Ministers have reiterated the government’s support for plans to boost diversity in public appointments. But departments need to do more to make sure a wide variety of groups are aware of public appointments, says Peter Riddell, the Commissioner for Public Appointments

If the House of Commons moves too far away from Whitehall departments, it will make life much harder for both ministers and civil servants

English devolution is a journey without a clear destination – producing a long overdue rebalancing of power, but within continuing tight financial constraints

Sir Nicholas Macpherson – the longest serving Treasury perm sec for sixty years – can be credited with overseeing the rebuilding of the finance ministry. But his successor faces a formidable in-tray

Police and the FCO may have got off more lightly than feared at November’s Spending Review, but many other departments face a substantial real-terms squeeze over the next four years

A look back at Margaret Thatcher's time in office shows the real story of balance and partnership between ministers and civil servants

Opinion: The need to find new ways of delivering services while resources are tight is the real reason for the new localism push

Opinion: Without many of the usual checks and balances, policies – especially those approved by the Treasury – can be pushed through without much collective discussion

The Institute for Government director dissects the summer Budget and finds the toughest news is still to come for Whitehall

Making the case for the necessity of further cutbacks is much harder in 2015 than in 2010, says the Institute for Government's director

The new government looks very similar to the last one – but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s business as usual

Another inconclusive election will mean uncertainty for the country – and complex challenges for Whitehall, says the Institute for Government's Peter Riddell

If the next government wants to shake up Whitehall, it must do it in the right way, for the right reasons, says the Institute for Government's Peter Riddell

An increasingly federal UK will require more joined-up thinking if we are to retain a unified Home Civil Service

The next government will face difficult choices over cuts – and it won’t find the answers in a traditional spending review

Don’t fall for the accepted wisdom. The real story of the coalition lies in the hard data

Pre-election contacts have now begun between opposition and perm secs, but this flawed system should be improved

Sailing into uncharted waters, the civil service has no rules on how to help the coalition parties prepare for an election.