Beckie Smith

4 days ago | civilserviceworld.com | Beckie Smith |Dave Penman

The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee has launched a new inquiry into propriety and ethics in government. The committee will use the inquiry to examine the progress made so far on the government’s manifesto commitments to raise standards of ethics and integrity in government and to restore trust between the public and politics. These include setting up an ethics and integrity commission with an independent chair “to ensure probity in government”.

5 days ago | civilserviceworld.com | Beckie Smith |Jim Dunton

The Ministry of Justice is setting up a new probation and reoffending directorate to bring policy work on the two areas closer together and respond to growing demand for the two services. The directorate will provide “significant policy input” to deliver justice secretary Shabana Mahmood’s priority of using technology solutions to manage offenders in the community, according to a job advert for a director to lead the team.

5 days ago | civilserviceworld.com | Beckie Smith |Tevye Markson

A former acting permanent secretary at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has returned from a decade-long hiatus from the civil service to become deputy chair of Natural England. Peter Unwin, who left Defra in 2015, took up his new role on 1 April and will stay in the post until 31 December, the non-departmental public body has announced. He has been a board member at Natural England since 2020.

1 week ago | civilserviceworld.com | Beckie Smith

Imagine a world in which interacting with government services feels as effortless as ordering a morning coffee – they remember your name, recognise you as the person who likes warm oat milk in their coffee, and respect your need to rush off to work after delivering your drink with a smile. That is the vision of a modern digital state, as laid out in Secretary of State Peter Kyle’s foreword to the government’s blueprint for a modern digital government.

1 week ago | civilserviceworld.com | Jim Dunton |Beckie Smith

The Cabinet Office’s Places for Growth programme exceeded its original target of moving 22,000 civil service jobs out of London by the second quarter of 2024, just-published transparency data has revealed.   Launched in 2020 under the Johnson government, the initial deadline for relocations was the end of the decade – but the Sunak administration brought the target forward by three years in 2023.