Operational Delivery

“Acute hospital trusts are at crisis point,” warns PAC chair Meg Hillier

Review of the UK’s statistical capacity finds that the Office for National Statistics needs to increase its London presence, ten years after it relocated operations from the capital to Newport

RPA boss says failings over scheme to pay EU farmers "will live with me for many years" – but says "almost all" outstanding 2015 payments will be made by the end of this month

FDA general secretary Dave Penman says lack of cabinet unity on EU referendum is a headache for civil servants – but insists campaigning rules don't need to stifle debate

Tax authority challenged the legality of two offshore schemes designed by the banks to avoid paying tax on bankers' bonuses

The Times reports that government's legislative programme will now be laid out in May

DCMS permanent secretary Sue Owen says department is "just about" at the minimum levels of staffing it needs to do its job –  but says department is in a "much, much more fortunate place" than expected before the Spending Review

Tom Walker – who heads cross-government cities and local growth team – hails "ever closer integration" and close support of the Treasury as ministers press ahead with devolution drive

Public Accounts Committee points the finger at frequent leadership changes in its report on the Home Office's long-running border data troubles

Treasury committee chair Andrew Tryie warns of "lack of detailed explanation" of how HMRC's Making Tax Digital plans will play out

Iconic Whitehall building sold as part of MoD plans to make estate savings. Department says it will be "sympathetically restored, redeveloped and re-imagined as a high quality hotel and residential apartments"

MPs urge the Government Digital Service to provide more support if it wants departments to embrace digital innovation, after report finds that focus on 'digital by default' hindered delivery of new rural payments scheme

Public pending watchdog finds delays in the justice system because of “basic avoidable mistakes” and says reform alone will not tackle all “causes of inefficiency"

Treasury perm sec Nick Macpherson says incoming HMRC chief exec Thompson will focus on "spending the money", while executive chair Edward Troup will oversee "strategic, policy and reputational leadership" of the tax authority

“All we’re asking is for the Met Office to be able to allocate what it needs to fund staff by industry standards,” Prospect’s Gordon Hutchinson tells CSW, as hundreds of Met Office staff set up picket lines

Public Accounts Committee criticises lack of transparency over HM Revenue and Customs' £130m, ten-year tax deal with Google – but says department has taken "a step in the right direction" in pledging reform of penalty regime

Powerful Economic and Domestic Secretariat to get a new deputy director to help departments focus on longer-term trends and the impact of technology

Former Border Force head Tony Smith sets out scale of the challenge Brexit would pose to management of Britain's borders

IfG's deputy director Julian McCrae says long-awaited new plans are "little more than a laundry list of nice to haves"

Ministers say new, single documents bringing together spending totals and broad reform plans will "enable the public to see how government is delivering"

Leading health think-tank warns on state of NHS trust finances even after Treasury's Spending Review boost

Director for G-Cloud and the digital commercial programme at the Government Digital Service moving to become deputy director of the BIS digital service

As Home Office prepares to take on full responsibility for fire and rescue services from the Department for Communities and Local Government, MPs on the Public Accounts Committee say Whitehall must do more to understand the local implications of budget cuts

Public and Commercial Services union mulls industrial action over "unnecessary and inflammatory" compulsory redundancies – but HMRC says it has done "everything possible" to avert the situation