Communications

Departments must stop using commercial confidentiality as a reason for withholding information about contracts, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said in a report published today.

The Home Office, Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and Cabinet Office are combining their internal design teams to create a new cross-government shared service, CSW can reveal.

The gov.uk website is to be adapted to ensure that the civil service communications profession can more easily use it to run campaigns, the government’s executive director for communications Alex Aiken (pictured below) has told Civil Service World.

The annual Civil Service People Survey (CSPS) shows increased satisfaction with training opportunities this year, but another fall in scores associated with pay and benefits.

The reforms to the government's communications profession will include the launch of a new talent management scheme, executive director of government communications Alex Aiken has told CSW.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has won a national award for its use of social media.

The information commissioner, Christopher Graham, has slammed the “crazy” system of funding for the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), and claimed that the body is in danger of becoming overloaded with work.

Government has launched its new communications plan, setting out the key campaigns for all government communications hubs over the next year.

The Justice Select Committee’s review of the Freedom of Information Act is “an opportunity missed to create more certainty around policy advice”, former cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell has told CSW.

All departmental communications functions are to be assessed over the next 18 months as part of a new capability review process, CSW has learned.

A cross-government plan is being developed that will, for the first time, provide a strategic overview of all government communications – and enable the Cabinet Office to better coordinate Whitehall’s communications operations.

The majority of the Government Communication Network’s content is to be made available to the public.

Sir Bob Kerslake, the head of the civil service, has established a blog and an account on the social networking site Twitter, so that he can better engage with civil servants across the UK and the globe.

The NHS could host commercial advertising on its website in the near future, a deputy director at the Department of Health said on Monday at a seminar held by CSW in conjunction with the Post Office.

Civil servants will be left without adequate advice on buying communications services when the Central Office of Information (COI) is abolished in March, a senior civil servant has warned.

Departmental select committee chairs have provided mixed reviews of the departments they scrutinise for a Civil Service World Special Report, which has found that 40 per cent of them are dissatisfied with departments’ responses to their reports.

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude has announced the closure of the Central Office of Information (COI), following a review of government direct communications published earlier this year.