Government Tax Profession

HM Revenue & Customs briefs staff on major downsizing of its estate – CSW has the key details and reaction from unions

Geoffrey Spence to step aside as Infrastructure UK merged with major projects watchdog

Crown Commercial Service's director of complex transactions to temporarily serve as chief commercial officer

Theresa May sketches out Home Office vision for the next five years – and confirms that Home Office perm sec Mark Sedwill is reviewing size of the department's central HQ

"We don’t have the right policies to meet 2020 targets," Amber Rudd tells MPs

HM Revenue and Customs chief executive says low staff morale is not damaging productivity – but acknowledges more work to do to make officials feel engaged with wider department

Ombudsman's report highlights poor complaints handling as biggest cause of upheld cases in 2014-15

Health service chief executive says "considerably more progress" needed in Spending Review talks to ensure "genuinely workable NHS funding solution"

Matt Hancock says new team will bring together officials and ministers to focus on digital reform

Cross-government SDSR to be unveiled two days before the Spending Review

LSE Diplomacy Commission warns over lack of joined-up foreign policy strategy – and says Foreign Office must do more to promote "family-friendly" career paths

New appointments this week in the civil service, UK politics, and public affairs, via our colleagues on Dods People

Chancellor George Osborne confirms that environment, communities and transport departments have struck a deal with the Treasury — as he hints at further changes to public sector pay and terms

With science and research spending already below the OECD average, new report by the Science and Technology Committee calls on the Treasury to "safeguard both the quality and the productivity of our science base"

Combined central and local government outsourcing spend highest since early 2012, according to new research

New "Office for Students" and Teaching Excellence Framework among measures in business department's Green Paper

Garry Graham – taking over from Leslie Manasseh at the union for specialists and managers – calls for "cool appraisal" of performance management by ministers

Decentralisation will not be a "panacea" for improved public services, think tank warns

Cabinet Office minister Matt Hancock sets up a new group to help departments to become "intelligent consumers of their own data" – and promises lunchtime coding groups for civil servants. Audience members at the Open Data Institute meanwhile quiz him on the privatisation of the Postcode Address File

Public Accounts Committee criticises HMRC over customer service, compliance and tackling aggressive tax planning – while HMRC says MPs have "overlooked" its achievements

Tech industry group says some initiatives designed to open up markets are poorly understood, but Crown Commercial Service chief Sally Collier insists Whitehall is "changing the way it does business" with smaller firms

Chatham House urges protection of FCO – while officials reportedly say they are "confident" of a good outcome at the Spending Review

Police and Crime Commissioners write to ministers over new funding formula – but Home Office says changes will improve "complex, opaque and out of date" system