Public finances

138,000 more people worked in the civil service in June 2026 than in March 2016

People working in the civil service, UK, at the end of each quarter, March 1999 to June 2026. Number of people, seasonally adjusted.

Latest figures

Notes

• The civil service is the staff of central government departments and their agencies, such as HM Revenue and Customs, the Department for Work and Pensions and HM Prison and Probation Service. It doesn't include the armed forces, NHS staff, teachers, the police or council workers. The Northern Ireland Civil Service is counted separately and isn't included.
• Each figure counts everyone employed, whether full or part time, rounded to the nearest thousand. Counting part-time staff as fractions of a full-time job, the civil service was 523,000 full-time equivalent posts in June 2026.
• The figure for March 2021 includes about 19,000 temporary staff employed to carry out the 2021 Census in England and Wales, who had left by June 2021. In June 2021 about 7,000 probation staff moved into the civil service from private companies when probation services were brought back into HM Prison and Probation Service.
• Figures are seasonally adjusted and may be revised in later releases.

Sources

• Office for National Statistics, Public sector employment: Civil Service headcount (G7D6) and full-time equivalent (G7G6)

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