About the Civil Service
Civil Service Statistics 2005 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 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 and in recent years it has become necessary to amalgamate some of these broad levels further.
For the purposes of this statistical summary, some staff not in the Senior Civil Service but of broadly equivalent level are grouped with it, including senior staff in the Diplomatic Service and some in specialist grades. Table B 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 managerial levels below the SCS (Grade 6/7 show a 6.2 per cent increase and SEO/HEO show a 2.6 per cent rise over 2004).
Part-time staff
Part-time staff are dominated as a sector by women, particularly in the lower grades (Table B).
- Table B: Permanent staff by responsibility level and gender; 2005 [MS XLS 18KB, 1 pages]
Salary levels
Chart 4 and Table C show proportions and numbers of staff at different salary levels. At 1 April 2005, the median gross salary (excluding overtime or one-off bonuses) was £19,200 on an FTE basis. This compared with £18,890 in 2004 (an increase of 1.7 per cent).
- Chart 4: Non-industrial permanent staff by gross salary band; 2005
- Table C: Permanent non-industrial staff by gross salary band and gender; 2005 [MS XLS 16KB, 1 pages]
One-quarter of staff earned £15,340 or less (on a full-time equivalent basis), and one quarter earned £25,260 or more. The proportion of median women’s salaries to that of men has increased from 75.0 per cent in 2004 to 79.1 per cent in 2005. The median salary of part-time staff - £17,050 on a headcount basis - was lower than full-time staff (£19,870), reflecting the larger numbers of part-time staff in the lower paid grades. The median gross salary for part-time staff is marginally higher for men than for women (£17,130 for men and £17,050 for women).
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.