The civil service has grown for the eighth year running, new Office for National Statistics figures show.
The latest public sector employment bulletin, published yesterday, shows the full-time equivalent civil service headcount increased by 24,000 between June 2023 and June 2024 and now stands at 513,000.
This is the biggest increase seen since 2020 to 2021,the height of the Covid-19 pandemic response, when the headcount rose by 39,000.
In the intervening years, it has risen by 14,000 (2021 to 2022), and 10,000 (2022 to 2023).
The ONS measures yearly increases in the size of the civil service using data from June, as well as giving quarterly updates. In the latest quarter, the number of civil servants rose by 2,000.
The size of the civil service has risen in each year since 2016, when it stood at 384,000. It has grown by 129,000 in that time, a 34% increase over the last eight years.
The increases between 2016 and 2020 were largely attributed to Brexit, while ministers have put the uptick in the following few years down to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The headcount has continued to climb despite numerous declarations by consecutive Conservative governments that they would reduce it, from Boris Johnson's plan to axe 91,000 jobs to bring the size to pre-Brexit levels to the most recent "numbers cap" plans under Jeremy Hunt which sought to go back to the pre-Covid size.
Table: Changes to the civil service headcount (FTE) in the last decade
| Year |
Size |
| 2014 |
403,000 |
| 2015 |
392,000 |
| 2016 |
384,000 |
| 2017 |
392,000 |
| 2018 |
400,000 |
| 2019 |
416,000 |
| 2020 |
426,000 |
| 2021 |
465,000 |
| 2022 |
479,000 |
| 2023 |
489,000 |
| 2024 |
513,000 |
Which departments have grown the most over the last eight years?
In the last eight years, the Cabinet Office has grown the most out of any government department, going from having 2,180 civil servants in 2016 to to 6,455 in 2024: a 196% increase. Its agencies have grown from having 770 officials in 2016 to 4,075 in 2024, a 429% rise.
The Treasury has also grown significantly, rising from 1,170 to 2,610 staff, which is a 123% rise.
Another area which has had a significant boost in staffing levels over the last eight years is the energy and net zero portfolio.
The Department for Energy and Climate Change in 2016 had 1,430 staff, while the today-equivalent Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has a headcount of 4,355, an increase of 205%.