Government department beginning to catalogue current central points (4)
I believe the answer is:
foci
'central points' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'government department beginning to catalogue current' is the wordplay.
'government department' becomes 'FO' (short for Foreign Office).
'beginning to' says to take the initial letters.
'current' becomes 'I' (symbol for electric current).
The initial letter of 'catalogue' is 'c'.
'fo'+'c'+'i'='FOCI'
(Other definitions for foci that I've seen before include "targets" , "fixed points" , "Central points (of the greatest activity)" , "Points for attention" , "Centres" .)