In its response last June to the independent Power of Information report, the Cabinet Office said it was time to review how to “maximise the potential value of civil servants’ input into online fora”. Teams from the Cabinet Office Propriety and Ethics and Government Communications were given the job of “clarifying” how civil servants should respond to citizens seeking advice online, and told to report by autumn last year. Contributions to online debate should take into account not only by the Civil Service Code but by government communications management policy, which would “determine which public servants have the right skills and remit to make public statements”, said the document. The author of Civil Serf claimed to be a middle-ranking 33-year-old female fast-stream civil servant, and filled her blog with jibes at ministers and complaints about the hidebound practices and boring meetings of Whitehall. read more

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