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Finance professionals across government should “get on the front foot” and make sure they’re involved in the policymaking process, the government’s new director-general of public spending, Julian Kelly, has said.

Permanent secretaries have less than a month to deliver work to boost diversity in their departments, the government’s new diversity champion Sir Simon Fraser revealed at this year’s Civil Service Diversity & Equality Awards.

The prime minister will be able to pick permanent secretaries out of a candidate shortlist from December this year, under new rules announced today – with the first competition to be held under the new process that to replace Sir Bob Kerslake in February as permanent secretary of the Department for Communities and Local Government.

This year’s civil service Diversity and Equality Award winners have been named at a ceremony in Petty France today.

Departments will “get absolutely nowhere” on reforming their services if they don’t have their own in-house digital capability, Paul Shetler, chief digital officer at the Ministry of Justice (furthest right), has warned.

Civil servants could see their offices move from central London to outer suburbs under plans to further shrink the government’s presence on Whitehall, it was announced last week.

The Tories will continue Whitehall cuts at the same pace for at least two further years if re-elected for another term in office, chancellor George Osborne has announced today.

HM Passport Office will be abolished and its operations absorbed by the Home Office from 1 October, it has been announced today, and the organisation’s chief executive Paul Pugh will be replaced by a newly-appointed director general.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has today called on the Department for Transport (DfT) to work more closely with the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) on maintaining the country’s road network.

Civil servants are due to take part in a one-day strike over pay on Wednesday, 15 October, it has been announced today.

Former head of the civil service Sir Bob Kerslake has said his biggest regret is that the government didn’t publish a civil service diversity plan more quickly.

Oliver Robbins, director-general, civil service, has spoken out in defence of the government’s new Talent Action Plan – designed to promote diversity in the civil service – after a blog about its publication attracted 130 comments on the civil service website.

A total of 200 18-21-year-olds are this week starting the government’s civil service Fast Track apprenticeship scheme.

Senior civil servants often “don’t know what’s going on” with contracts held by their departments and thus spot problems too late, Joshua Reddaway, the National Audit Office’s director for commercial and contracting, has warned.

Paul Pugh, chief executive of the Passport Office, has been accused of a “complete management failure” by the Home Affairs Select Committee. In a report published today, the committee calls for the office to be abolished and its functions to be returned to the direct control of ministers.

Civil servants who challenge ministers’ ill thought-through policy ideas are generally blamed for blocking change and become the “butt of hostility”, former Labour minister Charles Clarke has said.

Labour’s Cabinet Office spokesman is on a charm offensive. Winnie Agbonlahor reports on his plans for Whitehall reform

The new chief executive of the civil service is likely to "lack the authority he/she needs to help drive forward real reform”, according to shadow Cabinet Office minister Michael Dugher.

Sir Jeremy Heywood has this week taken over the role of head of the civil service from Sir Bob Kerslake, who in July announced his forthcoming retirement.

Former Credit Suisse chief information officer Magnus Falk has this week started his new role as government deputy chief technology officer, one of 100 senior digital specialists brought into government over the past year.

More than half of permanent secretaries attended Oxbridge, compared to less than 1% of the public as a whole, according to a report by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission which criticises the lack of diversity among the people running the country.

Just a month after Dominic Jermey started his new job as chief executive of UK Trade and Investment, he spoke to Winnie Agbonlahor. 

The new chief executive of the civil service will only have “sufficient authority” if he/she reports directly to the prime minister, rather than Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood, John Healey, co-founder of new think-tank GovernUp, has said.

Winnie Agbonlahor hears new director general regret past 'last of investment in leadership.'

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has denied telling its employees how to vote in the Scottish referendum, after its permanent secretary Robert Devereux issued department-wide guidance on the topic.

We still need generalists, says the Cabinet Office minister. By Winnie Agbonlahor.

Dataset  _Land use statistics

Data owner  _The Office for National Statistics

Accessed at  _http://bit.ly/1r4Vj7g

Contact  _access2data@ons.gsi.gov.uk

Interviewee  _Jeni Tennison, Open Data Institute

John Hirst, chief executive of the Met Office, is leaving the civil service in September after seven years in the role.

The £15.8bn Crossrail programme was commended for demonstrating good programme management by a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report, published yesterday.

Border Force director general Sir Charles Montgomery rejected suggestions by Home Affairs Select Committee chair Keith Vaz (pictured) that 250 border guards are suing the organisation over its new “itchy” uniforms.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) “should urgently invest in its operational, technical and commercial skills,” a report by the National Audit Office has found.

The Cabinet Office amended and then broke its own rules for awarding grants, a National Audit Office (NAO) published today explains.

The government will commit to buying British food from 2017 under new guidelines encouraging the whole public sector — including schools and hospitals — to do the same, it has been announced today.

Companies House is to make all of its digital data available for free from April 2015.

Winnie Agbonlahor hears business department perm sec Martin Donnelly explain the value of ‘positive neutrality’