Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many full-time equivalent jobs with the Civil Service or government agencies there were in Yorkshire in May 2010; and how many such jobs there are now.

On 31 March 2010, there were 38,000 full time equivalent Civil Servants employed in the Yorkshire and the Humber region. The latest available statistics for 2013 show that this number reduced to 31,590 as at 31 March 2013.

To help deal with the deficit which this Government inherited in 2010, the Government has reduced the size of the Civil Service by 17% since the 2010 General Election. It is now at its smallest since the Second World War, representing a significant increase in efficiency and productivity. This reduction helped save taxpayers £2.4bn last year alone, against a 2009/10 baseline.