About the Civil Service
Civil Service Statistics 2004 annual report
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Delegation of pay and grading
Since 1 April 1996 all departments and agencies have had delegated responsibility for the pay and grading of their staff, except for those in the Senior Civil Service (SCS). Departments and agencies have developed their own pay and grading systems, and it has become increasingly difficult and less appropriate to present statistics in terms of the previous service-wide grades. The distinction between non-industrial and industrial grades has also become less meaningful as departments and agencies have introduced their own grades.
Instead, the concept of broad ‘responsibility levels’ is used, in which departmental grades have been assigned to levels broadly equivalent (in terms of pay and job weight) to the former service-wide grades. As departmental practice on pay and grading has diverged, it has become harder over the years to generalise, resulting in the amalgamation of some of these broad levels.
For the purposes of this statistical summary, some staff not in the Senior Civil Service but of broadly equivalent level are grouped with it. These include senior staff in the Diplomatic Service and some in specialist grades. Table E shows the numbers of permanent staff in these broad levels. If we look only at the staff for whom responsibility level is known, the increase in civil service numbers (full-time equivalents) appears to be predominantly at the senior manager, Grade 6/7 levels (13.4 per cent increase since 2003).
Part-time staff
Around 28.8 per cent of female civil servants work part-time (on a headcount basis) compared to only 3.7 per cent of men.
By April 2004, some 63 per cent of part-time staff (permanent non-industrial) were employed at AO/AA level, whereas part-time staff represented 22 per cent of staff working at AA/AO level (compared with almost 19 per cent in 2001 - see Table E). The proportion remained notably lower than this in senior levels: 4.7 per cent of staff at SCS level were part-time (compared with 3.6 per cent in 2001); and 7.9 per cent at grade 6/7 level (6.5 per cent in 2001).
Salary Levels
Chart 10 and Table F shows numbers of staff at different salary levels. At 1 April 2004, the average (median) gross salary (excluding overtime or one-off bonuses) of permanent non-industrial civil servants was £18,890. This compared with £17,770 in 2003 (an increase of 6.3 per cent over the year).
- Chart 10 - Non-industrial permanent staff by gross salary band; 2004
- Table F - Permanent non-industrial staff by gross salary band and gender; 2003 and 2004 [25KB XLS]
One-quarter of staff earned £14,750 or less (on a full-time equivalent basis), and one quarter earned £25,510 or more. The proportion of women’s median salary to that of men’s has decreased from 78.1 per cent in 2003 to 75.0 per cent in 2004. The median salary of part-time staff - £16,330 on a full-time equivalent basis - was also substantially lower than full-time staff (£20,060), reflecting the larger numbers of part-time staff in the lower grades. The median gross salary for part-time staff is higher for women than for men (£16,490 for women and £15,670 for men), reflecting the numbers of women across all grades opting for part-time hours.
The quality of information on pay has been affected by delegated pay and grading, partly because of different arrangements for paying and reporting on certain allowances and bonuses in different departments and agencies. Revisions to departmental pay structures are implemented along with pay settlements and can make short-term trends in salary levels difficult to interpret.
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