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Daniel Howes @howesdaniel.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

The largest absolute increase occurred at HMRC (the same as last quarter), but the largest proportional increase was at the Treasury. At the other end are the Cabinet Office and FCDO, which shrunk by 5.4% and 3.8% respectively - exit schemes kicking in perhaps?

A table from the Institute for Government showing how individual government departments changed between quarters 3 and 4 of 2025.

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Daniel Howes @howesdaniel.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

It's that time again... ONS Public Sector Employment dropped today, revealing a familiar pattern - the civil service just can't stop growing. An increase of 535 from Q3 2025 to Q4 2025 brings the total to 520,860 (FTE). @instituteforgovernment.org.uk

A line chart from the institute for Government showing how the size of the civil service has changed since 2009. It shrinks gradually to a minimum in 2016, but has been steadily increasing since then.

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Daniel Howes @howesdaniel.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

Antonia Romeo, as well as being the first female cabinet secretary, will also be the fourth person to hold the position in the last 8 years. As the chart shows, such short recent tenures are atypical - and not ideal for enabling a permanent, impartial civil service. 1/

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Daniel Howes @howesdaniel.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

I'll be speaking on a panel at this event hosted by @resolutionfoundation.org in a couple of weeks, talking about what the day-to-day of a researcher at a think tank is like. Improving representation personally important to me so please do share! Sign up: www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/worki...

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Daniel Howes @howesdaniel.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

5/ While the number of ALBs increased to 306 by end of FY 2024/25, total funding allotted to ALBs in 2023/24 (latest year of data) actually fell by 0.61% in real terms. This cut was felt across NDPBs whose funding decreased by 7.6%. Worth noting: 109 ALBs receive no govt funding at all

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Daniel Howes @howesdaniel.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

4/ The CS grew again in 2025 (520,440 FTE as of Q3), but growth was slower than 2024 (1% vs. 3.8%). This is due to fewer entrants as opposed to more leavers - probably b/c of short-term fixes like recruitment freezes. Govt will need to address structural issues for size to come down and stay down

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Daniel Howes @howesdaniel.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

3/ Perm secs remain incredibly experienced civil servants. Cab Sec Wormald became DG in 2006 and perm sec in 2012! However, new perm secs have some external experience (e.g. JRF, Goldman), showing value placed on bringing new ideas into the top positions. (PS do not ask how long this chart took me)

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Daniel Howes @howesdaniel.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

2/ Over 1/2 of all depts have new perm secs at the helm since GE 2024. While this scale of change is not unusual (9/16 dept heads changed in 2010), it does pose challenges as leaders get to grips with briefs. Add in Sep reshuffle and 5 depts have both new a SoS and perm sec (i.e. big big change!)

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Daniel Howes @howesdaniel.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

2/ The bulk of this increase occurred at HMRC, which grew by 1185, but the Cabinet Office saw the largest proportional increase (4.4%). This addition of 695 FTE staff comes as up to 1200 staff are being paid to leave the CO by May 2027 through voluntary exit schemes…

A table from the Institute for Government showing how individual government departments have changed in size from Q2 2025 to Q3 2025. The Cabinet Office increased the most in proportional terms, growing by 4.4%. At the other end, Defra shrank by 1.4%.

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Daniel Howes @howesdaniel.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

1/ The latest ONS data on public sector employment shows that the civil service has grown (again). After 2 consecutive quarters of plateauing growth, the CS grew in Q3 by 3490 (0.6%) to 520440 FTE. This is the highest quarterly increase since Labour came to power. @instituteforgovernment.org.uk

A line chart from the Institute for Government showing the size of the civil service in full-time equivalent terms, from 2009 to 2025. The size decreases from 2009 to 2016, before increasing more or less continuously from then to now.

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Daniel Howes @howesdaniel.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

4/ The most striking change from the previous quarter is the large proportional increase in the size of DSIT, which has grown by 12.8%. This is due to a transfer of staff from GDS in the Cabinet Office to DSIT, reflective of this MoG change: hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2024...

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Daniel Howes @howesdaniel.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

3/ The largest department is still the MoJ with over 90,000 staff, most of whom work outside the ‘core’ department in HM Prison and Probation Service. The smallest department, DCMS, is over 40 times smaller, with 2,125 staff.

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Daniel Howes @howesdaniel.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

2/ The headline statistic is that the CS has grown (again) to an overall FTE size of 516,950 – 3,750 more than this time last year (0.73%) and 480 (0.1%) more than last quarter (Q1 2025).

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