Civil Service Statistics, UK: 2012

2 November 2012

A minor error has been found in the Data Summary Tool. As a result, data for the following departments have been amended:

• Home Office
• Justice
• Scottish Government

ONS apologises for any inconvenience caused.

• Civil Service Employment on 31 March 2012 was 463,812, down 34,621 or 7 per cent on 31 March 2011

• The number of full time civil servants fell by just over 34,000 to 354,250 between March 2011 and March 2012. The number of civil servants working part time fell by around 550 to 109,562

• More than half (53 per cent) of all employees were female. Of those employees who declared their ethnicity, 9.3 per cent were from an ethnic minority. Of those who declared their disability status, 8.3 per cent were disabled

• More than four in five civil servants were aged 30-59. Since March 2011 there were decreases in employment for all age bands except 65 and over, which increased by nearly 1,000, and 16-19, which increased by 100

• Median gross annual earnings (excluding over time or one-off bonuses) for Civil Service employees was £23,900 in March 2012, an increase of £140 (0.6 per cent) on March 2011

This bulletin contains an overview of Civil Service employment statistics on 31 March 2012 in context with statistics from previous years. The earliest available data on a consistent basis is for 31 March 2008. Data prior to this was collected for different reference dates in the year. There were also changes in coverage prior to 2008. Longer time series for total civil service employment are available from the Public Sector Employment release.

The release counts all home Civil Service Employees. It excludes the Northern Ireland Civil Service, other Crown servants and employees of the wider public sector. There are home Civil Service employees based in Northern Ireland and Overseas.

Statistics are presented on a range of factors including working pattern, gender, ethnicity, disability status, earnings and location of the Civil Service workforce.

Civil Service employment has fallen by around 7 per cent between March 2011 and March 2012. There were just over 460,000 people worked in the Civil Service in March 2012. The decrease in Civil Service Employment was mainly in full time staff.

The responsibility level which showed the largest decrease in employment was the Administrative responsibility level with a fall of nearly 10 per cent. The number of employees working at the Senior Civil Servant responsibility level fell by 4 per cent.

There were increases in the 65 and over age band and 16-19 age band while the number of employees in all other age bands fell.

All regions had decreases in Civil Service employees. The largest percentage falls were in East Midlands, East of England and South West which all had decreases in Civil Service employment of over 9 per cent between March 2011 and March 2012.

The number of leavers from the Civil Service between March 2011 and March 2012 was over three and a half times the number of entrants. This reflects increases in voluntary redundancies in some departments and the freeze in external recruitment to the Civil Service. The majority of entrants were at the Administrative responsibility level.

Female civil servants continue to make up over half of employees in the Administrative and Executive Officer responsibility levels. More than half of employees in the more senior responsibility levels were male.

Of those who declared their ethnicity, just over 9 per cent of civil servants were from an ethnic minority in March 2012. Of those who declared whether they had a disability, just over 8 per cent of civil servants were disabled. These proportions varied between responsibility level. Civil servants at lower responsibility levels were twice as likely to be from an ethnic minority or to be disabled compared with senior civil servants.

The median earnings of Civil Service employees increased by £140 (0.6 per cent) over the year to March 2012 to £23,900. Many departments were subject to a pay freeze during this period, however all staff earning less than £21,000 received a pay increase of at least £250.

Working pattern

At 31 March 2012 there were 463,812 civil servants down 34,621 (around 7 per cent) on 31 March 2011.

There was a decrease in the number of civil servants working full time of just over 34,000, or around 9 per cent, to 354,250 compared with 31 March 2011.There was a decrease of around 550, or 0.5 per cent in the number of part-time civil servants to 109,562.In March 2012 around 76 per cent of civil servants worked full time, a decrease of nearly 2 percentage points on March 2011.

At 31 March 2012, around 45 per cent of the Civil Service worked at the Administrative responsibility level, 26 per cent worked at the Executive Officer level, 20 per cent worked at Higher or Senior Executive Officer level and 7 per cent worked at Grade 6 or 7 level. The remaining 1 per cent worked at Senior Civil Servant level.

Employment in all responsibility levels fell between March 2011 and March 2012. The Administrative responsibility level showed the largest percentage decrease of just under 10 per cent. There were decreases of between 3.6 per cent and 5.3 per cent in the other responsibility levels.

The large fall in the number of civil servants at the Administrative responsibility level led to a decrease in the overall proportion of civil servants working at that level of 1.3 percentage points. The proportion of civil servants at all other responsibility levels increased slightly.

At 31 March 2012 slightly more than half (53 per cent) of all Civil Service employees were female, unchanged on March 2011.

The proportion of females working at Senior Civil Service level in March 2012 was 35.0 per cent, an increase of 0.3 percentage points on March 2011 and 3.2 percentage points on March 2008. The proportion of Grade 6 and 7s who were female has been steadily increasing from 38.1 per cent in March 2008 to 41.1 per cent in March 2012. The proportion of female employees in the other grades has remained fairly constant with increases in some years offset by decreases in others.

More than four in five civil servants were aged 30- 59 in March 2012.

Since March 2011 there were decreases in employment for all age bands except 65 and over, which increased by nearly 1,000 and 16-19, which increased by 100. There were more females than males in the 20-29, 30-39, 40-49 and 50-59 age bands. There were more males than females in the other age bands.

There were 46,000 Civil Service employees in Scotland, 32,000 in Wales and 4,000 in Northern Ireland in March 2012.

The English region with the highest number of civil servants in March 2012 was London with 75,000 employees. The lowest was East Midlands with 22,000.

There were decreases in the number of civil servants in all UK regions. The regions with the largest percentage decreases in Civil Service employment between March 2011 and March 2012 were East Midlands, East of England and South West, all of which had falls in employment of over 9 per cent.

A total of 46,109 employees left the Civil Service between March 2011 and March 2012. During the same period 12,570 people joined the Civil Service.

Employees at Administrative responsibility level accounted for 51 per cent of entrants compared with 49 per cent of leavers. All other responsibility levels accounted for a higher proportion of leavers than entrants.

Of the Civil Service employees in March 2012 who declared their ethnicity, 9.3 per cent were from an ethnic minority, an increase of 0.1 percentage points on March 2011.

At March 2012, 10.6 per cent of employees at Executive responsibility level and 9.6 per cent of employees at Administrative responsibility level were from an ethnic minority. In comparison 5 per cent of those at the Senior Civil Service level were from an ethnic minority.

In March 2012, 8.3 per cent of civil servants who declared their disability status were disabled, an increase of 0.6 percentage points compared with March 2011.

The proportion of employees with a declared disability was greater in lower responsibility levels compared with high responsibility levels. At the Administrative responsibility level, 9.2 per cent employees who declared their disability status were disabled. This compares with 4.3 per cent of employees at Senior Civil Service level.

At 31 March 2012, 42 per cent of civil servants with a declared national identity declared themselves as British or Mixed British.

Employees alternatively declared themselves as English (41 per cent), Scottish (8 per cent), Welsh (6 per cent) or Irish (1 per cent). The remaining 2 per cent recorded another national identity.

The median gross salary of civil servants on 31 March 2012 was £23,900, an increase of £140 on the median salary on 31 March 2011. Employees overseas had the highest median earnings of £35,650, followed by employees in London (£30,180). The regions with the lowest median earnings were North East (£19,720), Northern Ireland (£20,760), Wales (£21,320), North West (£21,530) and Scotland (£21,540).

This statistical bulletin presents a range of statistics for the year ending 31 March 2012, based on findings from the Annual Civil Service Employment Survey (ACSES).

ONS also collects and publishes quarterly Civil Service employment statistics as part of the Public Sector Employment (PSE) Statistical Bulletin. These quarterly statistics should be used when seeking to measure the size of the Civil Service over time. The latest published statistics are for Q2 2012 when Civil Service employment was 459,000 (424,000 on a full-time equivalent basis).

The difference between the ACSES and Q1 PSE figures, which use the same reference date, is less than 0.1 per cent on headcount and around 0.1 per cent for full time equivalents. This is not considered to impact significantly on the quality of the annual statistics.

Table 11 provides a full breakdown of the differences between the two sources by department.