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Sir Bob Kerslake visits staff in DEFRA

Sir Bob Kerslake recently visited staff at Defra as part of his programme of meeting staff around the country.

He met teams working on a wide range of issues, including the centre of expertise on influencing behaviour, the natural environment strategic unit, the food policy unit, and Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency’s export and disease surveillance teams.

Operation StepChange

Civil servants are doing their bit to make sure that London is still ‘open for business’ during the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the largest sporting events in the world. London 2012 will be a great moment for the country and civil servants across Whitehall are determined to do everything they can to support them.

Sir Bob Kerslake visits DWP and HMRC staff in Preston

Sir Bob Kerslake recently visited Preston to meet staff working at the benefit and tax centres, to get an understanding of the work they do delivering key services to people in the area. It was the second in a programme of visits that will see him getting out and about round the country to meet civil servants.

New Head of the Civil Service and Cabinet Secretary

Sir Bob Kerslake and Sir Jeremy Heywood are now formally in their new posts and as part of their early introductions they wanted to share a message with the whole of the Civil Service.

Pensions reform update – 21 December 2011

The Treasury has made an announcement about the long term reform of public service pensions – including the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme - http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/press_146_11.htm

The Government has confirmed that the talks have been constructive and have resulted in heads of agreement with the majority of Civil Service unions.

Sir Bob Kerslake announced as new Head of the Civil Service

The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister have announced that Sir Robert (Bob) Kerslake will be the new Head of the Civil Service. This follows a competition run by Sir David Normington, First Civil Service Commissioner.

The role of Head of the Civil Service will be separated out from the Cabinet Secretary role when Sir Gus O’Donnell retires at the end of the year. Jeremy Heywood – currently Permanent Secretary at Number 10 – will take over as Cabinet Secretary. Sir Bob will assume his new responsibilities alongside his existing role as Permanent Secretary of the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Proposed changes to your pension – update (2 November 2011)

The Government has today set out significant changes to its proposals for public sector pension reform.

Key elements of today’s proposals include:

  • a more generous ‘accrual rate’. This is the rate at which pension entitlement is built up. This has been increased from the 1/65ths offered in October to 1/60ths. This represents an eight per cent increase in generosity on the previous proposal.
  • New transitional protection. The Government’s objective is that anyone within ten years of their pension age on 1 April 2012 will be protected i.e. they will see no change in when they can retire nor any decrease in the pension they receive at their normal pension age.

Sir Gus O’Donnell announces retirement

I wanted to let you know that I am announcing my retirement today, after over six years as Cabinet Secretary, Head of the Civil Service and Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office. I will be leaving the civil service at the end of the year.

Pensions reform Q&A

In June 2010 the Government commissioned an independent review to look into all public service pensions. The review concluded that current pension arrangements, including those for the Civil Service, need to be reformed.

This page aims to answer some of your questions about proposed changes to Civil Service Pensions.