Commercial

Government signs 20-year lease on city centre office development to house 2,900 staff

National Audit Office report says late-running programme was “overly ambitious” with an “unachievable” timescale

Study finds Whitehall is the world’s most effective civil service for generating policy, but falls down ranking in areas like financial management and digital services

Rupert McNeil said professions will play a key role in ensuring the civil service can offer pay packages that attract and retain talented people

Firms representing 40% of central government procurement spending agree to quicken payments to tackle £26bn backlog

Taking a punt on a start-up is better than explaining costly failures to the Public Accounts Committee, according to Daniel Korski

National Audit Office says department did not look carefully enough at other ways to fund new nuclear plant

Crawford Falconer to advise on post-Brexit deals and lead development of trade profession across the civil service

PCS expresses concern that contracts forming part of the tax department’s controversial regional hub scheme were signed in the pre-election period

Two-thirds of charities who have contracts with the public sector need to use their own funds to deliver these contracts, according to think tank NPC

Letter dismisses government's claim that it meets 2% NATO defence spending target as “accounting deception”

Department-sponsored study flags move as part of wider reform of franchising system

Meg Hillier also slams lack of accountability for Whitehall chiefs after policy failures

Ministerial direction was required by DfT perm sec to provide funds for project

Review suggests priorities and spending decisions should be “more explicitly informed” by the return they provide on investment

Pre-election period to commence after MPs back poll

Move will free the institution from public sector ownership, says minister

Rail Group DG takes up post at the Department for Transport, increasing number of female departmental chiefs to five

Government Legal Department director targets multi-million pound efficiencies

Outgoing civil service commissioners highlight concerns that pay restrictions are limiting the attractiveness of some posts, while slow recruitment processes stop departments hiring top candidates

Former Cabinet Office minister says his perception of the civil service went “downhill a lot” during the coalition government

Public Accounts Committee report on outsourced tax credits debacle says agency lacked the commercial capacity for the payment-by-results deal

Changes to be judged on how funding can promote sustainability of services and reduce worklessness