InterAct, an Acteon company, has broadened its environmental capabilities and services with the recent appointments of Ms. Cynda Maxon and Mr. F. Charles (Skip) Newton, who join the company as Sr. Project Director and Senior Scientist, respectively. This is part of a strategic move to augment services, draw on global experience, and forge stronger collaborative links with other Acteon group companies. These appointments will increase InterAct’s ability to conduct a complete range of environmental studies required by clients to establish conditions prior to exploration and development, and to assess potential impacts from operations and activities, including seismic, drilling, construction, production, and decommissioning.

Maxon has more than 20 years of experience as an environmental chemist, ecological risk assessor, and project manager specializing in coastal and offshore marine environments. She has performed environmental baseline, post-drilling, impact, and decommissioning studies in the USA, mid-Pacific, Caspian and Mediterranean seas, East and West Africa, eastern Russia, and Indonesia. She continues to deliver customized environmental training to several US major oil companies covering a wide-range of topics that apply to global activities and operations.

Civil Service Commission chief Sir David Normington this week rejected plans to allow ministers to pick their own permanent secretaries. It will be a great disappointment to Francis Maude, who argued involving ministers in the appointment process would increase the accountability of the most senior civil servants in a department.

I’ve had a chat with one former Secretary of State who agrees with Maude that the selection process is in desperate need of an overhaul: Caroline Spelman. The former Environment Secretary has kept her head down since she lost her job in September’s reshuffle, but she’s emerged to speak to Coffee House on this key issue of civil service reform. As someone who has led a department recently but is no longer bound by ministerial secrecy, Spelman offers a rare insight into the working relationship between ministers and senior civil servants.

Owen Paterson, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has announced the appointment of Elaine Hayes as Chair of the Seafish Industry Authority’s (Seafish) Board.

Elaine will chair the Board, which oversees the strategic direction of Seafish, for three years from 1 January 2013.

The appointment has been made with the agreement of the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment in Scotland, the Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development in Northern Ireland and the Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Food Fisheries and European Programmes in Wales.

Up to 500 jobs are to be created at Sellafield in Cumbria – recently described as a "nuclear slum" – to speed up work on decommissioning radioactive plant and equipment dating back to the beginning of the cold war.

As figures showed the government was scaling down its expectations of new reactors being built, Todd Wright, the managing director of Sellafield, said the new posts would accelerate work on four reactors that were part of Calder Hall, claimed to be the first nuclear plant to produce electricity on a commercial scale.

"This new influx of staff will mean we are able to do more work, more quickly," he added.