Economy

After two years as Westminster’s chief public-spending watchdog, Meg Hillier tells Tamsin Rutter her frustrations and aspirations on pre-scrutinising projects, taking the fight against tax evasion to the US and extending FOI

BEIS programme manager makes literary springboard’s ‘final three’ 

Former Network Rail chief exec and Olympics infrastructure tsar will succeed Andrew Adonis on a permanent basis

MPs get update on outsourced prisons contract as Cabinet Office reports public services are being maintained

Cabinet Office has reportedly been monitoring the firm since last September amid fears for future

Public administration select committee announces new inquiry into risks of outsourcing following collapse of contractor Carillion

David Lidington said it would not have been responsible for the government to bail out the firm that works on rail projects as well as managing prisons and providing school meals

Just five local authorities bid for cash from government infrastructure scheme designed to accelerate delivery of on-street power points

Select committee chair Frank Field told DWP that he could not guarantee the universal credit reports he has obtained will remain confidential 

Watchdog says department could have to pay nation’s least punctual train operator tens of millions of pounds a year because of changes to its contract requirements

Transport department insists that franchise will continue to meet financial terms to 2020 and has paid more to Treasury than previous state-owned operator

Former infrastructure tsar and Cabinet minister says Brexit is sidelining other issues and claims half of civil servants believe government policy is ‘trashing the national interest’

Department launches three-year plan to boost digital, data and technology offer

Philip Rutnam and predecessor Mark Sedwill join HMRC’s Edward Troup in list of public servants recognised by the Queen

Peers question MPs' decision to further redact Brexit documents and call on David Davis to publish entire papers

BEIS says funding will also extend opening hours and protect rural branches

FCO teams up with DFID and British Council to tender for four-year framework to provide networking to 550 sites in the UK and throughout the world

Harlow Council planners approve blueprint for science campus

MPs slam department’s weak oversight after company made unauthorised redundancy payouts totalling £1.76m

You can’t take the politics out of big projects, but strengthening the National Infrastructure Commission and building the evidence base will lead to wiser decisions

Think-tank analysis identifies concessions on residency rights, a £39bn bill on the ‘never-never’, and hand-tying assurances on Northern Ireland in draft agreement

Senior officials past and present react to draft first-phase divorce agreement between UK and EU

 Public Accounts Committee criticises departments' “business as usual” assumption for 2019 and berates pace of pan-Whitehall Border Planning Group