Government Tax Profession

In recent times, new delivery challenges and rising tensions between officials and politicians have led to calls for an inquiry into the civil service. Joshua Chambers asks how Whitehall can ensure it has the right tools for the job 

The number of major projects on track to be delivered on time and to budget has fallen from 32 to 17 over the year, while the number of projects in serious danger of failing has fallen from eight to four, according to new figures from the Major Projects Authority (MPA).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has become the first public sector organisation to achieve Gold Status on the industry-judged Disability Standard.

The High Speed 2 company needs to be given greater freedoms from Treasury restrictions so that it can attract the best project managers and construction workers, Alison Munro, chief executive of the project, has told Civil Service World.

Victoria MacCallum (pictured) is the new head of Cabinet Office communications. She has had the job on an interim basis for some time, but it was made permanent in April. Her predecessor in the role, Emily Tofield, has now returned from maternity leave to a new job as cross-government head of media relations.

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.

A member of the Public Administration Select Committee last week stormed out of a hearing and criticised chair Bernard Jenkin MP.

The government’s new horizon-scanning programme is “flawed” and contains “substantial weaknesses,” according to the Science and Technology Select Committee.

The government should conduct a comprehensive review of its interventions in Afghanistan in 2001, the Commons’ Defence Committee said in a report on Tuesday. This should encompass not just military operations, but all the UK’s work under the NATO and UN missions.

NHS Property Services was set up as a limited company to manage the NHS property portfolio without a formal business case being produced to support that decision, the National Audit Office has found in a report published this month.

The Lords’ European Union Committee has called for the creation of a cross-government communications strategy regarding the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) – a proposed free trade agreement between the EU and the US.

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.

A lack of clarity on pre-election rules are causing officials to “do things on the sly for ministers”, according to the Institute for Government (IfG), which has this week published a report into the final year of the coalition government.

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.

An intergovernmental committee is required to formalise the relationship between the Welsh and UK governments so that it “doesn’t depend on individual good relationships between people”, Noel Lloyd, a member of the Commission on Devolution in Wales, has told the Welsh Affairs Select Committee.

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.

The civil service must fight for Britain’s economic interests in Europe, even in the absence of a coherent government EU policy, the former chief executive of UK Trade & Investment has said.

Leadership of change and management information are the top cross-government priorities for improving capabilities, the government’s 11 published departmental improvement plans (DIPs) reveal.

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”.

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.

The Ministry of Defence’s Defence, Equipment and Support (DE&S) division was this month turned into an arm’s-length body and given an exemption from Treasury salary controls and civil service-wide promotion criteria.

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.

Dr Vanessa Lawrence (pictured) has stepped down as director-general of Ordnance Survey after 14 years in the role.

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.