Today the government announced a fall of almost 8,000 in the number of civil servants (full-time equivalent – FTE) in the last quarter (March to June 2015), although many of them may well still be doing the same job in a government-owned or private company. In our final analysis of civil service staff data before the spending review is published, Emily Andrews looks at the latest numbers.
There are now 397,850 civil servants (FTE), down 7,920 from the previous quarter.
- The Defence Support Group was sold to a private company – Babcock International – in April 2015; this sale included the transfer of 2,000 former civil servants.
- 1,030 staff (FTE) from the National Offender Management Service (part of MoJ) moved into the private sector.
- The Highways Agency (formerly 3,610 FTE), is now ‘Highways England’, a government-owned company.
- The Ordnance Survey (formerly 1,200 FTE) has also become a government-owned company.
‘Government owned, contractor operated’ organisations have not been privatised: they are funded by government money, but run by private organisations. However, their employees no longer count as civil servants – creating reductions in the overall headcount figures. With ambitious efficiency targets recently announced, the Institute for Government has said that further staff cuts are ‘inevitable’. Transforming agencies into government-owned companies can reduce the number of people classed as civil servants, but this does not translate directly into savings to the department. These companies have the power to make their own staffing decisions, leaving the efficiencies made by staff reductions under their control, but these changes will no longer be visible in the Public Sector Employment data.
- the department: civil servants directly under the control of ministers and the permanent secretary, which sometimes includes other bodies (like the National Offender Management Service at MoJ, or Education Funding Agency at DfE)
- other organisations: arm’s-length bodies which the department is responsible for but doesn’t manage as directly (such as the DVLA at DfT).
After losing the Highways Agency, DfT has now dropped below BIS to become the seventh-largest departmental group in government. DWP remains the largest, employing 80,510 FTE; DCMS is the smallest, at just 570. Four departments (HMT, HMRC, DfT and FCO) now have more civil servants than in the previous quarter.
- Topic
- Civil service
- Keywords
- Civil servants Civil service reform
- Tracker
- Whitehall Monitor
- Publisher
- Institute for Government