All posts by Jack Aldane

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  ‘Self-regulation has failed’: former UK Treasury chief backs civil service appointment overhaul

  The former head of the UK Treasury has backed calls for greater external oversight of civil service appointments, warning that the current system of allowing departments to regulate their own

  • Posted November 15, 2021
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  Vote of confidence: how climate-conscious electorates are forcing governments to get serious about going green

  World leaders announced target after target at COP26 but there has been little clarity on the delivery mechanisms behind them. Yet there is evidence that citizens increasingly want action on

  • Posted November 14, 2021
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  Majority of US federal employees disagree with COVID-19 vaccine mandate, survey finds

  More than half of US federal employees said in a recent survey they strongly or somewhat disagreed with the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The mandate came into effect after

  • Posted November 10, 2021
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  UK standards watchdog slams government’s attack on parliamentary scrutiny

  The chair of the UK’s public standards watchdog today condemned the government’s attempt to reshape the system charged with policing MPs’ behaviour, calling it “a very serious and damaging moment

  • Posted November 4, 2021
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  Dutch tax office falls foul of GDPR rules

  The Dutch tax office breached privacy rules for seven years by holding data on more than a quarter of a million citizens in a list of possible fraudsters, a data

  • Posted November 2, 2021
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  COP26: Governments must do more to help businesses tackle climate change, CEOs say

  Policymakers must work more closely with corporates if countries are to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, a group of more than 90 CEOs has said as world leaders arrive in

  • Posted October 31, 2021
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  UK chancellor announces largest departmental spend increase ‘this century’

  Spending by UK government departments is to grow by £150bn (US$206bn) over the period to 2024-25. UK chancellor Rishi Sunak announced the increase in his Budget and Spending Review today,

  • Posted October 27, 2021
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  Don’t pin hopes on return to pre-pandemic ‘normal’, UK perm sec tells leaders

  Civil service leaders should not expect workplaces to return to pre-pandemic norms and must instead embrace innovations made over the last 20 months, permanent secretary at the UK Department for

  • Posted October 25, 2021
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  Hong Kong civil service applicants to be quizzed on national security law

  Applicants to civil service jobs in Hong Kong will be required to pass a new test on the city’s mini-constitution and controversial national security law, starting from mid-2022. The national

  • Posted October 21, 2021
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  Science must inform all Whitehall departments, says chief scientific adviser

  The UK government’s chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance has said Whitehall must do more to incorporate science and engineering expertise, and that science should be considered “as important to the

  • Posted October 19, 2021
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