Category Archives: Civil service

UK knew of former French president’s ill health for 10 years, papers reveal

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Suspicions over François Mitterrand’s health were raised a decade before his cancer prognosis was made public

A British diplomat raised concerns about the secret extent of French president François Mitterrand’s ill health a decade before the statesman’s terminal prognosis was made public, newly released official papers reveal.

Sir Reginald Hibbert, the UK government’s ambassador in Paris, appraised Whitehall colleagues in December 1981 with “talk about the president’s health which seemed to me to carry a certain amount of conviction”.

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Former head of ‘British FBI’ fears impact of Whitehall cuts on fight against crime

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Former National Crime Agency chief worries civil service reductions could have devastating effect

The former head of Britain’s equivalent of the FBI has said she fears ministers’ plans to cut civil servant posts could have a “devastating” impact on tackling serious and organised crime.

Speaking to Policing TV, Dame Lynne Owens, the former director general of the National Crime Agency (NCA), said she was keeping a “keen eye” on discussions about proposals to axe 90,000 jobs and how they may affect the agency she led for five years.

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Home Office tried to ‘sanitise’ staff education module on colonialism

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Disagreements have led to delay in course rollout as civil servants think empire material ‘too controversial’

Civil servants have attempted to “sanitise” a Home Office teaching module on race, empire and colonialism, according to those involved in devising a mandatory course on British history for the department’s 36,000 employees.

Disagreements have led to a year-long delay in the rollout of the project, which was due to be launched in June 2021. Home Office civil servants are understood to be nervous that some of the proposed material addressing issues of race, colonialism and empire is “too controversial” and have urged academics to tone down some of the content.

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Top official at Foreign Office called upon to resign over Kabul withdrawal

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Sir Philip Barton castigated along with Dominic Raab in damning report by MPs into UK’s chaotic exit

The senior civil servant in charge of the Foreign Office should consider his position after presiding over a disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan that betrayed UK allies, put lives in danger, showed a total absence of planning and was chaotically managed, MPs have concluded in a damning report.

The report from the foreign affairs select committee said the absence of leadership – both ministerial and official, including the permanent secretary, Sir Philip Barton – when Kabul fell was inexcusable and a grave indictment on those supposedly in charge. It added that Barton failed to give candid evidence to the committee, and says as a result it had lost confidence in him. The committee also accused him of covering up political interference in the fast-tracking of some individuals out of Afghanistan.

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Boris Johnson among dozens warned they face criticism in Sue Gray’s report

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PM notified before publication next week, as an ex-civil service chief says ‘real issue’ is the No 10 leadership

Boris Johnson is among dozens of No 10 officials warned by Sue Gray they are facing criticism in her Partygate report next week, as a former civil service chief said the “real issue” was the leadership of the prime minister and his cabinet secretary, Simon Case.

Johnson is one of 20 to 30 current and former staffers who have been notified by letter that accounts of their conduct will feature in her final report on the lockdown-busting parties. This is now likely to be published next week after Scotland Yard handed out 126 fixed-penalty notices to people from No 10, including one for Johnson but many for more junior staff.

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Junior staff could have risked career by not attending No 10 parties, lawyer says

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Refusing a boss’s request may harm relationship and cause employee to take legal action, according to expert

Junior civil servants who did not want to attend lockdown-breaching parties held at 10 Downing Street risked being forced to take legal action and put their careers in jeopardy, a senior employment lawyer has said.

The law expects people to stand up for themselves, experts have said, with employees largely expected to comply with their bosses. Whistleblowing legislation is rarely used because people are worried about repercussions.

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Civil servants and No 10 advisers furious over single fine for Boris Johnson

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PM received only one of 126 fixed-penalty notices relating to law-breaking parties, prompting claims Met police bungled inquiry

Civil servants and special advisers have reacted with fury and disbelief after Scotland Yard confirmed Boris Johnson got only one of 126 fines levied for law-breaking parties at the heart of Downing Street and Whitehall.

The Metropolitan police came under intense pressure to explain how it reached its conclusions after Downing Street said officers confirmed no further action would be taken against the prime minister despite him attending gatherings for which others were fined.

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Dorries criticises Jacob Rees-Mogg’s ‘Dickensian’ approach to working from home

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Culture secretary hits out after minister leaves notes for civil servants in empty Whitehall offices

Nadine Dorries has criticised Jacob Rees-Mogg, the minister responsible for Brexit opportunities and government efficiency, of foisting a “Dickensian” approach to working from home on the civil service.

Rees-Mogg, who has previously been called “the honourable member for the 18th century” has written to cabinet ministers urging them to coerce staff into a “rapid return to the office” and has been leaving notes in empty Whitehall workspaces with the message: “I look forward to seeing you in the office very soon.”

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‘Condescending’: Jacob Rees-Mogg leaves notes for WFH civil servants

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Cabinet minister accused of ‘crass’ behaviour in his campaign to get staff back in the office

Jacob Rees-Mogg has been called “condescending” after leaving notes deemed to be passive-aggressive on civil servants’ desks in an effort to stop them working from home.

As part of his campaign to push workers back into offices, the cabinet minister has toured Whitehall buildings and published a league table of government departments based on how many staff are present.

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Partygate: ministers refuse to disclose pictures taken by No 10 photographers

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Cabinet Office won’t confirm or deny existence of taxpayer-funded pictures of illegal gatherings after freedom of information request

Ministers are refusing to disclose any pictures taken by official No 10 photographers of illegal gatherings held inside Downing Street, prompting Labour to call on Boris Johnson to “come clean and release these photos”.

The Cabinet Office refused to confirm or deny the existence of any photographs of events in the cabinet room, leaving parties, and a party in the prime minister’s Downing Street flat, after official pictures of the gatherings were requested under freedom of information laws.

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Boris Johnson did prioritise animal charity for Afghan evacuation, MPs told

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Second whistleblower suggests to committee that top civil servants lied to cover up episode

A second whistleblower has gone public to say it was “widespread knowledge” in government that Boris Johnson ordered the prioritisation of an animal charity based in Afghanistan for evacuation during the Taliban takeover last summer.

Josie Stewart, who worked in the Foreign Office for seven years, including a stint in the Kabul embassy, suggested senior civil servants in the department had lied to cover up the embarrassing episode.

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No 10 staff facing police over Partygate can see notes on their evidence

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Staff allowed ‘limited access’ before Sue Gray inquiry evidence passed to police

Downing Street staff being questioned by police about alleged lockdown breaches will be allowed to view notes on the evidence they gave to the Sue Gray inquiry.

Those spoken to as part of the Cabinet Office probe were told they could see the notes with a member of Gray’s team present but would not be allowed to bring a phone into the room, to be accompanied by a lawyer, or to request any changes.

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‘Time for the truth’: MPs call on Boris Johnson to publish ‘partygate’ report

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Cabinet Office officials wrangle over final version of Sue Gray’s findings on alleged Covid rule-breaking parties

Boris Johnson has been told it is “time for the truth to be released” as he faced more calls to publish a long-awaited report into “partygate” in full and not “suppress crucial details”.

Officials in the Cabinet Office are still wrangling over the final version of Sue Gray’s findings on a string of alleged Covid rule-breaking parties in Downing Street and other parts of government.

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No 10 apologises to Queen over parties on eve of Prince Philip funeral

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Boris Johnson’s spokesperson says ‘it’s deeply regrettable that this took place at a time of national mourning’

Downing Street was forced to issue an unprecedented public apology to the Queen on Friday over parties held in No 10 on the eve of her husband’s funeral, amid mounting fury from grassroots Tories.

Conservative MPs will hold crisis talks over the weekend about how to respond to allegations of a party culture in Westminster while the rest of the country was in lockdown.

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Whistleblower condemns Foreign Office over Kabul evacuation

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Ex-diplomat claims string of failings within department led to ‘people being left to die at the hands of the Taliban’

Tens of thousands of Afghans were unable to access UK help following the fall of Kabul because of turmoil and confusion in the Foreign Office, according a devastating account by a whistleblower.

A former diplomat has claimed bureaucratic chaos, ministerial intervention, lack of planning and a short-hours culture in the department led to “people being left to die at the hands of the Taliban”.

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Dominic Cummings says Covid chaos at No 10 was like ‘out-of-control movie’

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Former aide paints picture of media-obsessed PM and chaotic pandemic response in evidence to MPs

Dominic Cummings has laid bare the “surreal” chaos in Downing Street in March last year as the government grappled with the Covid pandemic, portraying the prime minister as obsessed with the media and making constant U-turns, “like a shopping trolley smashing from one side of the aisle to the other”.

During an extraordinary evidence session to MPs at Westminster on Wednesday, Boris Johnson’s former chief aide targeted the prime minister for personal criticism, accusing him of being “unfit for the job”.

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UK civil servants given just days to prepare £2.9bn aid cuts in 2020

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Cuts were agreed on the basis of a forecast shown five days later to be too pessimistic, report finds

UK civil servants were given five to seven working days to prepare 30% cuts in the overseas aid budget last summer, including a £730m cut to bilateral aid that it later emerged was unnecessary.

The cuts were agreed in July 2020 on the basis of a single forecast reduction in the size of the UK economy, which was shown to be too pessimistic five days after the cuts package was signed off.

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‘No 10 was a plague pit’: how Covid brought Westminster to its knees

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Insiders tell of a Whitehall in panic mode and reveal virus spread far more widely than was acknowledged

Westminster is an infectious place. A tiny germ of controversy or rebellion can spread across parliament, through Whitehall and into the prime minister’s office within hours. The windowless offices are cramped, MPs sit elbow to elbow in a Commons chamber that can only squeeze just over 400 MPs into its seats, two-thirds of the number in parliament.

It is also a place of macho presenteeism, where the Greggs in Westminster tube station often serves as a nightly dinner spot for some of the most senior office-holders in the land.

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UK facing risk of ‘systemic economic crisis’, official paper says

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Exclusive: Cabinet Office briefing seen by Guardian warns that Brexit, Covid, flu, flooding and unrest could lead to chaos

The government has privately admitted the UK faces an increased likelihood of “systemic economic crisis” as it completes its exit from the European Union in the middle of a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

A confidential Cabinet Office briefing seen by the Guardian also warns of a “notable risk” that in coming months the country could face a perfect storm of simultaneous disasters, including the prospect of a bad flu season on top of the medical strains caused by Covid.

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Racism endemic at DfID, staff claim

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Report says racism is endemic in UK aid department’s HQ and network of offices abroad

Many black, Asian and minority ethnic men working in the Department for International Development claim to have experienced prejudice at work, including racist jokes and doubts about their legality as UK citizens.

The government’s aid department has also been severely criticised for signing off an anti-sexual harassment campaign that portrayed BAME men following or restraining white women, in a report seen by the Guardian.

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