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SubscriptionsCategory: Whitehall and the Civil Service
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‘Noisy Reporting’ by Media of COVID Financial Scandals led to UK’s Slump in Corruption Index, Cabinet Office Claims
A new parliamentary report reveals that, apart from the £16.4 billion estimated tax and benefit fraud found by the National Audit Office last year, ministers have no idea about the level of fraud in the rest of government
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Only 2% of Fraudulently Claimed COVID Cash from Rishi Sunak’s £22 Billion Pandemic Scheme Recovered by Government
A new parliamentary report details a complete lack of planning in handing out the money to small businesses, pubs, restaurants and some retail premises and clubs
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Conservative Chaos Hands Ministers More than £1 Million in Severance Payments
The unprecedented churn in senior government positions means some ministers have been given pay-outs worth more than seven times what they received as their salary
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The Government’s Blacklisting Policy: ‘My Partial Victory for Freedom and Transparency’
Renowned weapons expert Dan Kaszeta, who was blacklisted by the Government over his tweets, explores why we have not heard the last of the scandal of the Government ‘cancelling’ expert speakers
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One Million Teenagers Fail to Claim Child Trust Fund Money – After HMRC Steps Away from Notifying them of the Cash
A report by the Commons’ Public Accounts Committee says more should be done to help young adults trace their funds
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‘Labour Must Be Bold on Political Reform Beyond It’s Own Self-Interest if we are to have a Properly Functioning Democracy’
A big problem facing UK politics is that both main political parties see the status quo as in their narrow self-interest, writes former diplomat Alexandra Hall Hall
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Government Criticised for ‘Panic Buying’ PPE and Setting Up ‘VIP Lane’ for Contracts with Conflict of Interest Risk ‘High by Design’
A new report by the Commons’ Public Accounts Committee found that the Government was driven by ‘an overriding impetus to buy’ PPE during the pandemic – with ‘limited’ safeguards in place
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Rewarding Failure: How Ineffective Private Outsourcing Firms Become the Default Managers of Public Services in the Long-Term
As Byline Times reveals that around half of the Government’s biggest outsourcing partners are failing to hit minimum targets, experts warn that attempts at reform are not enough
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Rewarding Failure: ‘Startling’ Number of Government Outsourcing Firms Not Hitting Minimum Targets
Despite problems in meeting key performance indicators, these companies seem to be managing a significant and growing share of public services
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Council Coffers Crisis Revealed: Auditing of Public Money by Local Authorities Collapses – So How is Taxpayers’ Cash Being Spent?
Serious problems have arisen after the Government abolished the Audit Commission and handed the job to private accountancy firms instead
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Government Fraud Quadruples on Rishi Sunak’s Watch, New Report Reveals
HMRC contributed enormously to the rise in fraud after the then Chancellor approved tens of billions to be spent on pandemic support schemes
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Unpicking the Government’s Blacklist Policy: ‘The Devil is in the Details’
A renowned weapons expert uninvited from a government conference sets out his concerns around the policy that has now appeared to justify experts being ‘cancelled’ in Whitehall
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Years of Secrecy Unravel: UK Cabinet Office Under Scrutiny for Withholding Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp Messages
After two years of investigation by Byline Times and The Citizens, the scandal of secret government communications is finally coming to light
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What Rishi Sunak is Trying to Hide with his WhatsApp Cover-Up
The Prime Minister’s real motivation for refusing to comply with the COVID Inquiry is not to protect Boris Johnson – but to protect himself, reports Adam Bienkov
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The Profitable Nexus: How Ex-British Military Leaders Find Lucrative Roles in Business and Defence
Concerns swirl in Whitehall around retired senior British officers looking to advise foreign governments – conflicts of interest persist even if there is no wrongdoing, writes Iain Overton
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Mystery Murdoch Meeting: No Minutes Recorded During Government Summits with Right-Wing Media Chiefs
The Government claims there is ‘no requirement’ to record the minutes of informal meetings between ministers and the media, reports Sam Bright
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‘Cancelled from a Civil Service Talk for Retweeting a Liz Truss Parody Account’
Kate Devlin explains why an invitation to address Ministry of Justice staff was rescinded because of Government ‘due diligence’ of her social media accounts
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Will New Cabinet Office Guidance Tackle ‘Government by WhatsApp’?
The policy change does not go so far as to prohibit the use of automatic deletion functionality around messages
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Dominic Raab’s Resignation: ‘A Man So Unwilling to Learn is Undeserving of Our Sympathy’
The relationship between ministers and civil servants is, by definition, an unequal one – it takes courage to stand up to a minister or offer an opinion contrary to their own, writes former diplomat Alexandra Hall Hall
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‘Dominic Raab’s Resignation Exposes the Rotten Heart of Sunak’s Government’
The former Deputy Prime Minister’s bullying behaviour was long tolerated and excused by Rishi Sunak and his media supporters, reports Adam Bienkov
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Did the Cabinet Office Lie?
Despite years of asking for the former special advisor’s WhatsApp messages under Freedom of Information laws, the Cabinet Office may never have asked Dominic Cummings for them. Why? Iain Overton reports
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Calls for Government to Publish ‘Secret’ List of Ministers’ Interests After Boris Johnson BBC Scandal
As the former PM continues to deny he sought financial advice from the BBC’s now Chairman, guidance from his civil servant at the time has contradicted this, reports Josiah Mortimer
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Senior Government Figures Meet with Lobbying Group Funded by Private Healthcare while NHS Crisis Continues
Sam Bright reports on the influence held by a parliamentary lobbying group backed by private health interests
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Income Inequalities in Britain’s Public Service Pay
Now the gap between the lowest and highest paid in the UK is one of the highest in the OECD, Iain Overton looks at the role of public sector pay in widening the disparities
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Gove and Hancock Rewriting the Record With PPE ‘Bullying’ Claims
All the evidence indicates that senior Cabinet ministers facilitated the awarding of COVID contracts to favoured suppliers, reports Sam Bright
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Watchdog Thwarted from Deciding Whether £120 Million ‘Festival of Brexit’ Provided Value for Money
The Conservative chair of Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee has said questions must be asked as to ‘what the festival was for and whether it was worth it’
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‘VIP’ Firms Referred by Tory MPs and Peers for PPE Deals See Profits Soar
Hundreds of millions of pounds have been earned by companies channelled through the expedited procurement route by Conservative politicians, Sam Bright reports
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Anatomy of the PPE Procurement Scandal
Sam Bright dissects the multi-billion-pound affair that saw lucrative public contracts awarded to Conservative donors
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The Financial Takeover of Government
Sam Bright explores how the masters of high finance have been welcomed into the heart of power
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Sunak Appoints Ex-Big Energy Director as Business and Energy Advisor
Rishi Sunak’s Government is populated by a number of advisors drawn from corporations and Tufton Street ‘think tanks’, reports Sam Bright
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All But One of Boris Johnson’s Cabinet Ministers Used Private Email – Why?
Suella Braverman has returned to the Home Office following her resignation last week over her use of private email – but Iain Overton reports how using personal channels is a common occurrence among cabinet ministers
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Government Losing Control Over Public Spending, Report Warns
The method used to track state expenditure is now ‘increasingly unreliable and incomplete’, reports David Hencke
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Billions Paid to Booming Firms by Government During Pandemic
Inadequate record-keeping also risks losing the taxpayer billions more in fraud, reports David Hencke
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£203 Million Financial Boost for COVID Contract Winners With Conservative Links
Max Colbert digs into the latest accounts of firms that were awarded hundreds of millions in Government deals
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Missing in Action: The British Public is Being Asked to Bail Out its Own Government
From climate change to the cost of living, ordinary people are being forced to compensate for an administration in paralysis, says Lisa Young
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Government’s Prevent Strategy Oversight Committee has Never Met Since Conservatives Won 2019 General Election
A Freedom of Information request by Civil Service World has raised questions about the flagship counter-terrorism scheme
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Johnson’s Visit to the Lebedevs: A Dire State Not A ‘Deep State’
There is no such thing as ‘private business’ when you’re Foreign Secretary, writes former diplomat Alexandra Hall Hall
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MPs Condemn Government’s ‘Rushed’ Awarding of Contracts to Randox
The Public Accounts Committee claims it is ‘impossible to have confidence’ that contracts awarded to the testing provider during the pandemic were ‘awarded properly’, reports David Hencke
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Boris Johnson Will Try to ‘Burn Everything to the Ground’ – Because He Can
As the Prime Minister’s actions have repeatedly shown, elaborate conventions and procedures mask the features that fundamentally undermine democracy in British politics, says Sam Bright
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Civil Disservice: The Art and Craft of Lying for Britain
Former diplomat Alexandra Hall Hall charts how she was employed to bend the truth – and the consequences of this for our current politics
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‘Perhaps the Most Shameful Episode of the Pandemic’: £4 Billion of PPE to Go Up in Smoke
David Hencke has the details of a new parliamentary report showing how masses of equipment bought by the Government is set for the incinerator
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High Value Fraud Ignored as Government Chases Welfare Cheats
Tom Robinson investigates the disproportionate state investment ploughed into benefit fraud, while other anti-fraud efforts suffer from austerity
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The Sue Gray Report: The Rotten Heart of a Political Culture
The ‘Partygate’ scandal represents a systemic failure of multiple British institutions – with the fault not solely lying with Boris Johnson, says Jonathan Lis
