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Our colleagues in Dods Monitoring have put together a wall chart detailing the government's full ministerial breakdown, including names of spads and contact details for each minister.

The government’s chief operating officer Stephen Kelly has today announced he will leave the civil service in November to become the chief executive of business software firm Sage Group.

When university fees tripled in the coalition’s early days, there were dire warnings of the effect on social mobility and student numbers. But as Suzannah Brecknell reports, the real dangers lay elsewhere.

CSW reviews Colesseo

Civil servants responsible for running major projects will be able to tell parliament when ministers directed them to make particular decisions, under proposals published by the government.

The outgoing National Statistician has called for an end to the practice of giving ministers access to official statistics before their release.

During her 30-year civil service career, national statistician Jil Matheson has seen a lot of change. The UK Statistics Authority chief discusses the ever-evolving roles of data-crunchers with Suzannah Brecknell

The National Audit Office helped government to achieve £1.1bn of savings in 2014-14, according to its annual report published this week, but missed its own targets to complete 40% of its studies in six months and 85% within nine months – completing just 35% and 74% of reports in the respective time limits.

Efforts to centralise consultancy procurement are not working, according to the Management Consultancies Association (MCA), and may thwart “government’s stated aims of securing efficiency”.

The majority  (88%) of civil servants believe their department needs more training in order to be able to take advantage of cloud computing, according to a survey carried out by Civil Service World and cloud services provider Eduserv.

The Public Accounts Committee has warned of “evident risks” arising from the scale and pace of planned reforms to the probation system. 

John Pullinger, the incoming chief executive of the UK Statistics Authority, has warned that the poor use of data and targets risks “skewing the way we understand the world” rather than improving it.

Marks & Spencer chair Robert Swannell (pictured) has been made chair of the Advisory Board of the Shareholder Executive. Swannell has been a non-executive director there since January 2014, and will take up the new role in September.

More than two thirds (70%) of civil service managers are coming under pressure to designate 10% of their staff as poorly performing under the new performance management system, according to a survey carried out by Civil Service World.

New figures given to parliament suggest that women, ethnic minorities and disabled staff are winning a smaller proportion of promotions than was the case in 2009. Suzannah Brecknell examines the data to find out more

Ministers commissioning policy advice directly from external bodies is “dangerous, because it risks giving the job to a body that is not objective,” former cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell has said.

Departments need more flexibility on pay so that civil service organisations don’t feel the need for “bureaucratic reorganisations” designed to escape pay controls and enable them to recruit skilled staff, the Public Accounts Committee has said.

Audit and governance arrangements for free schools are “not yet effective,” according to a Public Accounts Committee report published last week.

A teacher whose school has become an academy enjoys new freedoms – but not from central reforms

The government wants to drastically reduce the number of people who can’t use online services. Suzannah Brecknell digs into its new digital inclusion strategy, which is set to affect civil servants across Whitehall 

Nearly half (41%) of senior civil servants rarely or never use academic research, according to researchers from the University of Manchester

New web capabilities are set to transform how the public sector interacts with citizens. Suzannah Brecknell reports from a round table debate on the opportunities and challenges of ‘real time communications’ technology

Three quarters of British people view strong data security as the most important feature of government’s online services, according to a survey carried out by YouGov for Deloitte, and nearly one fifth of people avoid using digital services because they don’t want to share data online.

Government’s proposed reforms to the judicial review process lack evidence and would limit access to justice, according to a report published today by the Joint Committee on Human Rights.

Sir Nicholas Macpherson, the Treasury permanent secretary, has told MPs that he decided to publish his advice warning the chancellor against a currency union with an independent Scotland because it was “vital to the national interest”.

There should be a single point of contact for citizens wishing to make complaints about government and a new minister for policy on complaints handling, the Public Administration Select Committee has said.

The Government Digital Service (GDS) and the business department (BIS) will establish a cross-government digital capability and skills programme to help citizens use digital services.

Gordon Brown launched a set of Whitehall efficiency initiatives; the coalition ramped things up a gear. And as this Parliament begins to wind down, civil service reform is back on the agenda again. Suzannah Brecknell reports

A Labour government would set targets for the proportion of people from BME and working class backgrounds joining the Fast Stream, as part of a drive to improve diversity across the civil service.

Cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood (pictured) and Treasury permanent secretary Sir Nicholas Macpherson are to investigate whether the prime minister broke government rules by writing an official letter to nearly two million businesses on the eve of European elections.

Using Cornerstone's talent management solutions, the State of Nebraska has improved employee engagement, improved talent retention and improved compliance management across 80 different agencies

New DVLA chief Oliver Morley has arrived in the wake of a major review of the transport department agency, and will soon be joined by a new chair. Suzannah Brecknell learns that the scene is set for a transformation project

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) could provide call centre, printing and mailing services across government, according to a review of the agency conducted by transport department non-executive director Mary Reilly.

Changes to improve support for whistleblowers in the health sector may not be effective, according to Care Quality Commission board member Kay Sheldon, because officials in the Department of Health (DH) haven’t “really taken responsibility for what happened” to her after she made whistleblowing disclosures in 2011.

A Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) report calling for the abolition of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) will receive a response by Easter, the government has told PASC.