Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the (a) total and (b) full-time equivalent head count was of the civil service in each year since 1997.

Civil service employment on both a headcount and full-time equivalent basis since 1997 is shown in Table 1 below.

Table 1: Civil Service employment on both a headcount and full-time equivalent basis since 1997 (thousands)

Sources:

1997-1998 Civil Service Statistics, Cabinet Office. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-service-statistics

1999-2023 Public Sector Employment Statistics, ONS

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/publicsectorpersonnel/datasets/publicsectoremploymentreferencetable

Notes:

1. All data refer to total Civil Service employment for both permanent and temporary/casual employees, except for 1997 and 1998 headcount numbers. The figures for 1997 and 1998 do not include temporary/casual employees in the headcount totals as they are not available.

2. ONS Public Sector Employment Statistics is the preferred headline measure for Civil Service employment since 1999. Civil Service Statistics, published annually by the Cabinet Office, provides more detailed demographic information for the Civil Service workforce, and prior to 1999, also provides the preferred headline measure for Civil Service employment.