The Department for Work and Pensions has returned to the top of the tree when it comes to staff numbers, overtaking the Ministry of Justice in the newly published 2025 Civil Service Statistics.
DWP has a headcount of 96,890, according to the figures published today, up from 93,815 in 2024.
This compares to 96,210 in the MoJ, up from 95,990 in 2024.
DWP last topped the Civil Service Statistics headcount table in 2022, when it had 94,160 staff, well above the MoJ’s 86,900.
The work and pensions department also had central government's highest headcount in 2021, 2020, and 2019 – the year the Cabinet Office took over responsibility for the stats from the Office for National Statistics and started the practice of comparing department sizes in the bulletins, which present the headline figures on the civil service workforce.
The MoJ took over at the top of the table in 2023 and 2024, but DWP has regained first place this year.
When it comes to full-time equivalent headcount, however, MoJ remains the biggest department with 90,100, while DWP has 84,415 FTE staff. This is because DWP has a much bigger cohort of part-time workers. A third – 32.4% – of DWP staff work part-time; only topped by HM Land Registry’s 34%. At the MoJ, 17% of staff work part-time, which is below the civil service average of 19.4%.
Top 10 civil service organisations by headcount
| DWP |
96,890 |
| MoJ |
96,210 |
| HMRC |
70,925 |
| MoD |
57,500 |
| Home Office |
50,655 |
| Scottish Government |
28,800 |
| DfT |
16,535 |
| Defra |
13,950 |
| Cabinet Office |
11,510 |
| Attorney General's Departments |
11,360 |
Small overall headcount rise as lower numbers join civil service
The overall headcount of the civil service has risen to 549,660 as of 31 March, according to the Civil Service Statistics data release, up from 542,840 the year before.
On an FTE basis, overall civil service employment is now at 516,150 – up from 510,125 in 2024.
This is a much smaller rise compared to the change between 2023 and 2024, when the headcount and FTE numbers both jumped by around 23,000.
The main reason for the lower increase is that the year to 31 March 2025 saw much lower levels of new entrants to the civil service overall compared to the year before. The number of new entrants in 2024-25 was 44,310 – down from 63,330 in 2023-24. The lower numbers joining the civil service came as several departments introduced recruitment freezes in 2024-25.
There was also a slight drop in the number of officials leaving the civil service: 38,610 people left in 2024-25, while 39,585 departed in 2023-24. This small drop – combined with the numbers leaving being a proportion of a bigger civil service – saw the turnover rate fall from 7.5% to 7.1% and the resignation rate fall from 4.2% to 3.6%.
The most common reason for leaving the civil service was once again resignation, given by just over half of leavers (19,420), followed by retirement (10,915).