this is bbc news. the headlines at 7: the cabinet secretary, sir mark sedwill, is to step down as the government's most senior civil servant. ministers consider reimposing some coronavirus restrictions in leicester because of a surge of cases there. with local flare—ups, it's right that we have a localised solution in terms of infection control, social distancing, testing. uk prime minister borisjohnson sets out his plans to build his way to economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. more details will be revealed on the easing of non—essential travel restrictions for many popular european holiday destinations. and arsenal leaves it late to book their place in the fa cup semifinals. we'll have that and chelsea's win over leicester in sportsday.

the uk's top civil servant, sir mark sedwill, has confirmed he plans to stand down from the role in september. his exit follows reports of tensions between him and senior members of boris johnson's team. his other role as national security adviser will be taken by mrjohnson‘s chief brexit adviser, david frost. in a letter to the prime minister, sir mark said, "two years ago, when my predecessor fell ill, your predecessor asked me to step in as cabinet secretary, and you asked me to continue to support you through brexit and the election period."

he went on... i'm joined by lord o'donnell, who was cabinet secretary and head of the civil service from 2005—2011. what do you make an announcement timing today? i think it's very sad that mark is going, he's a great public servant, came in a very difficult time when my successor tragically and seriously ill and later died. mark brought things

together, he has lived through brexit and covid—i9, it's not been easy for him, and i know he will move on now to think about having a global security role which has enormous strength in the security field. -- field. that looks like a bit of a consolation prize. he has beenin bit of a consolation prize. he has been in thisjob bit of a consolation prize. he has been in this job for less than two yea rs, been in this job for less than two years, there was a perception he was very close to theresa may, she trusted him and brought him in from the home office, and perhaps the relationship between borisjohnson and others in his team and sir mark had not been as close as it needs to be. they are probably quite a difficult team to work with, to be honest. i wonder about how keen people will be to come next, but there are obvious difficulties. it would be hard at the best of times, and these are not the best of times.

if it's not working out, the best thing is to move on, have a proper process which is really important to set —— to decide on the best person. i understand that is intended and i look forward to that being carried out and getting on someone who can work with the government to deliver the programme but also do it objectively and impartially. to say to them, actually, there is no evidence behind this, we should be doing something different and evaluating things. a lot of things which michael gove has talked about ina which michael gove has talked about in a speech today which contains lots of good things. but the mismatch between what they do and say is quite great. interesting you mentioned that speech because he is talking about rather as he used to talking about rather as he used to talk when us cabinet secretary talking about a blob in the educational establishment being a roadblock to reform and education so his perception and the perception of

dominic cummings, his special adviser or those years ago, that there is a roadblock to reforming whitehall and sir mark presumably is the top man to be seen as the architect or at least part of that roadblock. i don't think it's that. if you quote michael gove, he says the principal responsibilities... the problem is politicians! they can't fire themselves. someone was saying about experts a while ago? i agree with him. keep ministers in place longer. if there is a problem with politicians, they move around too much and it's true of the civil service. we can get serious expertise. i came from a very technical background, i like the idea of technocrats, i look forward to the first civil servant trying to explain pace there to the prime minister as mr gove seen to want him

oi’ minister as mr gove seen to want him or her to do. but there is not a blob in the civil service, what it wa nts to blob in the civil service, what it wants to do is to produce the best possible evidence to get the best possible evidence to get the best possible advice to government so they can make the best possible decisions. and at the moment we do have some problems, it's quite apparent that some things are going wrong and let's hope we can put them right. some of this resonates with me because i was a political correspondent in the early blair yea rs correspondent in the early blair years and i remember the difficult what was reported to be an ultimately left a sometimes difficult relationship between lord wilson and mr blair and some of his circle who felt they wanted to change, reform, modernise. and there was a sense that perhaps there was change that. i wonder if we are going through another cycle of that perception after a long period of stability that may be it is healthy for things to be shaken up a bit. no one can say the situation is perfect

at the minute, and we are all for continuous reform, really looking at getting the best that is developing, globalisation is changing, technology, artificial intelligence, we need to be on top of it, and we need to have people who are experts in those fields. and we need to make sure that the operational people, the people on the ground that know what is really happening, their voices are heard. all of those things are hugely important, and they are things we can do about that. and i just they are things we can do about that. and ijust hope they can do that. and ijust hope they can do that. but it does require them to be able to say, they are worried about... that means not having yes—men, the implication of one of dominic cummings' logs, i want more people and as well as they think like me. he said misfits and weirdos, you could argue that as diversity because they were not all

have been to the civil service process. when ijoined i was a bit ofa process. when ijoined i was a bit of a misfit in winter. my first paper was on recent developers in hypothesis testing, and i wrote that to the treasury! there is nothing wrong with having experts and expertise but you do need to be able to communicate, get across your m essa 9 es to communicate, get across your messages in a persuasive way i look at the evidence and then speak the truth on to power, even if they don't like it. let me ask you about another aspect of this, the decision to split again the role of national security adviser and cabinet secretary. it was partly a crisis situation, jeremy heywood became terminally ill, theresa mayjust moved mark sedwill across and said, do both, but was the ever sustainable? personally, ithink do both, but was the ever sustainable? personally, i think it played to mark's strengths, he was a brilliant national security adviser. he is incredibly good at that. i

would say it makes sense to do what they are going to do now, which is to split thejobs. they are going to do now, which is to split the jobs. i would have thought for a national security adviser we would want someone who has a strong background in that. i am slightly surprised, i am honest, andi am slightly surprised, i am honest, and i don't know david frost personally... he goes back quite a long way as a civil servant, he left and became one point ahead of the scotch whisky association and also the london chambers of commerce. doesn't sound like national security issues. when you compare that with mark's background. that's what they said. this is another example, if you really believe in expertise, getting professionals and to do the job, let's get the best expert to be oui’ job, let's get the best expert to be our national security adviser. if david frost comes through a process and they say, he is the best, that would be great, but i'm not sure what that process has been, so i

think there is a real problem there if he starts off with that is a problem. real pleasure to speak to you and i will be speaking to you about them soon in due course. one of those points about david frost, i should point out than in fact his background before he went off and did business stuff as he originally started his early career as a british diplomat, a former ambassador to denmark, before he moved to international trade so he has a diplomatic background but not a national security background. and we'll find out how this story and many others are covered in tomorrow's front pages at 10:30pm and 11:30pm in the papers. our guests joining me tonight are the writer and broadcaster dawn foster and deputy editor at city am andy silvester.

he will know all about david frost as brexit negotiator and his time at the london chambers of commerce. as global infections from coronavirus pass 10 million, a leading scientist advising number 10 says the uk is on a knife edge in the pandemic and he expects a rise cases in the coming weeks. professor sirjeremy farrar, who's a member of the government's sage advisory committee, also told the bbc he also expects a second wave of infections in the winter. the latest figures show that, in the last 24—hour period, 36 more people died having contracted the virus in the uk. that takes the total number of deaths to 15,550. it comes as the home secretary, priti patel, says the government is considering imposing a localised lockdown on leicester after a surge of coronavirus cases in the city. our health correspondent, richard galpin, has the latest. leicester city, home to hundreds of thousands of people, a large, diverse community, enjoying the freedoms brought

about by the government's increasing easing of lockdown restrictions. but now the government is considering tougher restrictions in the city to prevent new infections. that's because, in the first two weeks ofjune, there was a surge of new cases, 658 in total — that's around a quarter of all cases in the city during this pandemic. the labour mp for leicester east says at least five schools and a supermarket have already been closed down after staff there tested positive. i don't think we should take that risk, i think we should put lives first, and therefore i believe absolutely that we need to protect the residents, protect lives and we need to install a local lockdown, if that is what it means. the local authority has requested help to increase the numbers of people being tested for the virus. this vital for getting the outbreak under control. the government is also

promising other assistance. there will be support going into leicester and in fact the health secretary was in touch with many of us over the weekend explaining some of the measures, the support on testing, resources that will go into the local authority as well. in the city, some believe it is too early to talk about having a lockdown without pinning down exactly where the problem lies. after many weeks of asking, we now have that data, we are analysing it over this weekend and hopefully early next week we will know whether we have got a problem, and, if we have, where it is. the discussion about what happens in leicester could be a foretaste of what may happen with increasing frequency across the country as the government continues to lift the lockdown. pubs and restaurants in england are due to open next weekend. the next few months are absolutely critical. the numbers are lower but the virus hasn't changed and, come the winter, come the reopening of schools, which is absolutely critical, we can anticipate to see rebounds and second waves. in a statement, the department

of health said it was supporting the council and local partners in leicester to help prevent further transmission of the virus, and this included providing thousands of home testing kits. richard galpin, bbc news. borisjohnson says the uk will build its way out of the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic with infrastructure projects for schools, hospitals and transport. the full details will be set out in a speech on tuesday, but labour says the government's response to the virus has also been putting jobs at risk. our political correspondent, jessica parker, reports. fighting fit? boris johnson doing press—ups as he also tries to get the economy into shape. speaking to the mail on sunday about coronavirus, he said, this has been a huge, huge shock to the country, but we are going to bounce back very well. we want to build our way back to health. and to do it, some familiar themes. we are going to unite and level up.

new schools, hospitals and transport schemes. ministers are trying to motor the economy along. hospitality opening up next weekend in england. there has been a great deal of work across government in terms of investing in the hospitality sector, so pubs, restaurants, bars, to get them reopened, it is all part of the roadmap that the government has outlined. as lockdown has eased, it seems borisjohnson is trying to get his political agenda back on track. a big speech this week, a new task force called project speed to deliver on infrastructure projects, a bid to revitalise the economy and, after a challenging few months, where downing street has at times been on the back foot, perhaps a bid to revitalise his administration as well. but labour says some businesses will need more support, warning, without it, unemployment could reach levels not seen since the 1980s. the prime minister, he's very good at words, he's very good at the big,

grand promises, the world—beating test and trace system that was going to be in place by the ist ofjune, all of the other promises he's made, the problem is, there is a grand canyon between his rhetoric and the reality. supporting the economy through covid has already cost billions. i think we ordered four of everything on your menu. but borisjohnson and his chancellor don't appear afraid of big numbers. there will be questions about how these plans can be paid for, and ordering change... marinara, margarita... ..can be easier than making it happen. jessica parker, bbc news. the headlines on bbc news... the cabinet secretary, sir mark sedwill, is to step down as the government's most senior civil servant. tougher lockdown restrictions could be reintroduced in leicester because of a spike in new coronavirus infections there. uk prime minister borisjohnson sets out his plans to build his way

to economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. the full list of countries which will no longer be subject to coronavirus quarantine restrictions is expected to be confirmed by the government this week. it's set to include spain, which is the number one destination for uk holiday—makers. damian grammaticus reports now from the costa del sol. on the costa del sol, the sardines are sizzling, ready on the barbecue, but there are no people packed into the sunbeds, not until travel restrictions are lifted. rosia gonzalez is a nurse. now spain's covid—i9 cases have declined, she's running the family restaurant for the summer, hoping british tourists will be back soon. translation: the costa del sol is all about tourism. everybody knows that. it's what we live off. we want them to come,

we're really, really keen. the opening of air corridors will allow those in the uk who really want a holiday to have one and resorts here, which are so dependent on tourism, to salvage something of the summer. but some are worried that allowing thousands back in untested could bring the virus back. those who come will find masks have to be worn. compulsory anywhere, you can't keep a metre and a half from other people. you can be fined 100 euros if you don't have one. on arrival, tourists will have to give hotel and contact detail, but they won't have to have blood tests to show they‘ re