About the Civil Service
Civil Service Statistics 2004 annual report
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The Civil Service
Civil servants made up just under two per cent of the UK workforce (29.8 million, on a headcount basis at June 2004). See Chart 2.
You may view a full report on Jobs in the Public Sector Mid-2003 from the National Statistics website at www.statistics.gov.uk/ articles/ nojournal/ Public_sector_jobs.pdf.
Just over 20 per cent of those in employment worked in the public sector. Almost half of these were in local government, and almost 10 per cent in the Civil Service. The remainder were employed in the Armed Forces, NHS and other central government organisations.
The work of civil servants
Many civil servants are engaged in providing services to the general public, such as helping them find work through jobcentres, paying pensions and benefits, issuing driving licences etc. Others provide advice and information to Ministers in support of the development and implementation of policy, including advice on legal, statistical and economic issues. The majority of executive functions carried out by civil servants are now undertaken in executive agencies. A wide range of other functions, which were formerly undertaken in-house, are now provided through the private sector.
The distinction between industrial and non-industrial staff is similar to that which exists in the private sector between white and blue-collar workers. The Ministry of Defence is the largest employer of staff in industrial grades within the civil service employing around 80 per cent of the total. Since pay and grading was devolved to individual departments in 1996, some departments have introduced their own departmental grades, which have removed the distinction between industrial and non-industrial posts. In these cases, staff are counted in the non-industrial group. (See section on Pay and Grading).
Departments and executive agencies
Tables A and B give the breakdown of staff in each government department on a full-time equivalent and headcount basis. Departments vary greatly in size; for example the four largest departments together (including their agencies) account for around 65 per cent of all civil servants and the three smallest departments have fewer than 40 staff (full-time equivalent) each.
- Table A - Staff numbers in each department and executive agency; 2004 [76KB XLS]
- Table B - Permanent staff in post for each department and executive agency by gender; 2004 [77KB XLS]
On 1 April 2004 there were 96 executive agencies in the Home Civil Service. HM Customs and Excise, Crown Prosecution Service, Inland Revenue and Serious Fraud Office also operate on Next Steps lines. Some 73 per cent of civil servants work in these organisations.
Click on each of the graphs below to open a larger version
Chart 2 - Employment in the public and private sector; UK June 2004
Chart 3 - Civil Service permanent staff by department; 2004 (Full-time equivalent)
Chart 4 - Civil Service staff in executive agencies or Next Steps lines; 1990 to 2004
