Civil service headcount increased by more than 2,000 in the first three months of 2025, taking staff numbers above 516,000 at the end of March this year, Office for National Statistics figures have revealed.
The ONS’s latest Public Sector Employment dataset says that departments and their arm’s-length bodies employed 516,455 full-time-equivalent staff at the end of the first quarter of the year – up from 514,435 at the end of December 2024.
The latest staffing figures are the highest level since the second quarter of 2006, when there were 519,000 FTE staff in the civil service.
The numbers include officials working for the Welsh Government, the Scottish Government and temporary staff. An “all staff” crunch of the figures, not adjusted for FTEs, shows civil service headcount hit 550,130 in the first quarter of the year.
The civil service has seen its ranks swell every year since 2016 following the coalition government's austerity-driven attempts to rein in numbers. Since then, growth has been driven by the demands of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union and the necessity of responding to the Covid-19 pandemic.
FTE headcount was 384,000 in September 2016 – meaning it has increased by just over one-third in the course of eight and a half years. Nevertheless, the latest figures show FTE numbers are still some way off the high of 534,000 reached in 2004, when Tony Blair was prime minister.
A breakdown of the quarterly FTE figures provided by the ONS showed that the Department for Work and Pensions increased its headcount by the most between December and March, adding 905 permanent staff over the period. HM Revenue and Customs saw the second-biggest expansion, with 825 permanent staff added to its ranks.
At the other end of the scale, the Ministry of Defence saw its permanent FTE headcount decrease by 435 over the three-month period.
A government spokesperson said: “This increase is driven by recruitment to operational roles, including tax collectors and probation officers. As part of our Plan for Change, we are creating a more agile and productive state – reducing back-office costs to deliver savings of over £2bn by 2030 and targeting spending on front line services."
In recent weeks ministers have sent strong signals that they expect staff numbers to decrease over the coming months and years – particularly in terms of London-based officials.
Last month, the Cabinet Office said it expected to see the civil service’s London headcount drop by 12,000 over the remainder of the decade, down from the current 95,000.
In November last year MoD permanent secretary David Williams said he expected his department’s headcount to shrink by around 10% over the course of the parliament – equivalent to a reduction of more than 5,000 jobs.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet Office and the Department of Health and Social Care are among departments to have introduced exit schemes.
March’s Spring Statement saw chancellor Rachel Reeves set aside £150m in match-funding to support departments’ exit schemes, included as part of a broader £3.25bn “Transformation Fund”.