Civil Service statistics, UK: 2018

• Civil Service employment on 31 March 2018 was 430,075, up 10,676 (2.5%) on 31 March 2017.
• There were 331,392 full-time civil servants, 10,229 (3.2%) more than 31 March 2017 and the number of civil servants working part-time increased by 447 (0.5%) to 98,683.
• Of those who declared their ethnicity, 12.0% were from an ethnic minority.
• Of those who declared their disability status, 10.0% were disabled.
• Median gross annual earnings (excluding overtime or one-off bonuses) for Civil Service employees were £26,610, an increase of £710 (2.7%) on 31 March 2017.

Context

This bulletin contains an overview of Civil Service employment statistics on 31 March 2018 in context with statistics from previous years, based on findings from the Annual Civil Service Employment Survey (ACSES). The earliest available data on a consistent basis are for 31 March 2008. Data prior to this were 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 (PSE) release. The latest published statistics are for March 2018 when Civil Service employment was 430,070 (399,080 on a full-time equivalent basis). These quarterly statistics should be used when seeking to measure the size of the Civil Service over time.

Comparability

The difference between the ACSES and March 2018 PSE figures, which use the same reference date, is less than 0.1% for both headcount and full-time equivalents. These data are shown in Table 11 of the dataset that accompanies this release.

Subjects

This release counts all home Civil Service employees. It excludes the Northern Ireland Civil Service, other Crown servants and employees of the wider public sector, for example, employees of non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) and the National Health Service (NHS). There are home Civil Service employees based in Northern Ireland and overseas.

Dimensions

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

Diversity statistics are published on the sex, ethnicity, disability status and age of the Civil Service workforce. All diversity statistics relate to civil servants counted on a headcount basis. Employees declared as disabled are presented as a percentage of known disability status. Those employees who have either not responded or actively chosen not to declare their status are excluded from the calculation. The same applies when calculating the percentage of civil servants from an ethnic background. This should be considered when interpreting the statistics.

Additional tables

There are two annexes. Annex A shows sexual orientation and religion or belief by organisational level. Annex B shows the relationship between the salary of the highest-paid employee and the median salary of all employees in each Civil Service organisation.

Further information

Following a review, Office for National Statistics (ONS) will formally hand responsibility for the collection and publication of Civil Service statistics to Cabinet Office with effect 1 October 2018. The outputs will keep their National Statistics designation on transfer to Cabinet Office. The Office for Statistics Regulation will undertake a compliance check to review the product following transfer to Cabinet Office

On 31 March 2018, Civil Service employment increased compared with the previous year. There were 430,075 civil servants, up 10,676 (2.5%) on 31 March 2017.

Looking longer-term, Civil Service employment has decreased since 2008, as shown in Figure 1. There are now 95,082 (18.1%) fewer employees in the Civil Service than in 2008, when the level stood at 525,157.

On 31 March 2018, the number of civil servants working full-time increased compared with the previous year. There were 331,392 full-time employees, up 10,229 (3.2%) on 31 March 2017. There was an increase of 447 (0.5%) in the number of part-time civil servants, to 98,683 over this period. Figure 2 shows the change in working pattern from 2008 to 2018.

From 31 March 2017 to 31 March 2018, Civil Service employment decreased by 1,270 (0.8%) in the administrative responsibility level and 670 (0.6%) at the executive officer level. Over the same period, employment increased by 4,243 (10.3%) in the grade 6 and 7 responsibility level, by 395 (7.7%) in the Senior Civil Service responsibility level and by 7,298 (7.4%) in the senior and higher executive officer responsibility level. Figure 3 shows Civil Service employment by known responsibility level.

On 31 March 2018, within the Civil Service, 34.5% worked at the administrative responsibility level, 25.6% worked at the executive officer level, 24.7% worked at senior or higher executive officer level, 10.6% worked at grade 6 or 7 level and 1.3% worked at Senior Civil Service level. The remaining 3.4% did not report their responsibility level.

The proportion of female employees working at Senior Civil Service level on 31 March 2018 was 42.7%, an increase of 1.5 percentage points on 31 March 2017 and 10.9 percentage points on 31 March 2008. The proportion of female grade 6s and 7s has been steadily increasing, from 38.2% on 31 March 2008 to 46.3% on 31 March 2018.

There were more female than male employees in the executive officer and administrative responsibility levels. The proportion of females decreased in the administrative responsibility levels and increased in all other responsibility levels from 31 March 2017 to 31 March 2018, as shown in Figure 4.

On 31 March 2018, of all Civil Service employees, 53.9% were female, down 0.1 percentage points from 31 March 2017.

Between 31 March 2017 and 31 March 2018, there was a decrease of 270 (14.3%) Civil Service employees in age band 16 to 19 years and a decrease of 3,140 (2.8%) in age band 40 to 49 years. Age band 20 to 29 years increased by 13.4%, 30 to 39 years by 2.9%, 50 to 59 years by 1.6%, 60 to 64 years by 7.6% and by 4.8% in age band 65 years and over.

There were more females than males aged between 20 and 64 years and there were more males than females in the other age bands, as shown in Figure 5.

On 31 March 2018, there were 343,150 Civil Service employees in England, 43,120 in Scotland, 32,830 in Wales, 3,540 in Northern Ireland and 4,570 located overseas.

The number of civil servants increased in Wales by 1.2% and the number of civil servants employed overseas increased by 7.0%. Civil Service employment decreased by 0.2% in Scotland and by 5.8% in Northern Ireland.

The number of civil servants employed in England increased by 3.1%, increasing 10,350 from 332,800 in March 2017 to 343,150 in March 2018. Seven of the nine English regions showed an increase. The largest increases were in London (5,450; 7.0%) and the South West (2,230; 6.0%). Employment decreased in the North East (by 70; 0.2%) and in the South East (by 20; 0.1%).

The region with the highest number of civil servants was London with 83,530 (19.4%) employees. Excluding Northern Ireland and overseas, the lowest was the East Midlands with 19,500 (4.5%); this is shown in Figure 6.

There were 10,190 more entrants to the Civil Service than leavers between 31 March 2017 and 31 March 2018. A total of 40,600 people joined the Civil Service whilst 30,410 people left.

Employees at the administrative responsibility level accounted for 47.3% of entrants compared with 47.2% of leavers. Employees at Grade 6 and 7, the senior and higher executive officer and executive officer responsibility level, showed more entrants than leavers. For the Senior Civil Service responsibility level, there were fewer entrants than leavers between 31 March 2017 and 31 March 2018, as shown in Figure 7.

Of the Civil Service employees as of 31 March 2018 who declared their ethnicity, 12.0% were from an ethnic minority, an increase of 0.4 percentage points on 31 March 2017.

On 31 March 2018, there were 13.9% of employees at executive officer responsibility level and 12.1% at administrative responsibility level from an ethnic minority, as shown in Figure 8. At the Senior Civil Service level, 7.8% were from an ethnic minority, an increase of 0.8 percentage points from 31 March 2017. All other responsibility levels also showed an increase in the proportion of ethnic minority employees from last year to this year.

On 31 March 2018, of civil servants who declared their disability status, 10.0% were disabled, an increase of 0.1 percentage points on 31 March 2017. The proportion of employees with a declared disability was greater in lower responsibility levels, as shown in Figure 9. At the administrative responsibility level, 10.6% of employees who declared their disability status were disabled. This compares with 5.5% of employees at Senior Civil Service level.

On 31 March 2018, of civil servants with a declared national identity, 52.6% declared themselves as British or Mixed-British. Employees alternatively declared themselves as English (28.7%), Scottish (8.6%), Welsh (6.5%) or Northern Irish (0.8%). The remaining 2.8% recorded another national identity, as seen in Figure 10.

The median gross salary of civil servants on 31 March 2018 was £26,610, an increase of £710 on 31 March 2017. The increase in median pay should be considered alongside the compositional impact on the make-up of the Civil Service workforce by responsibility level, whereby the proportion of employees working at the administrative and executive officer responsibility levels continues to decrease.

Looking at earnings by region, employees overseas had the highest median earnings (£38,530), followed by employees in London (£33,870). The regions with the lowest median earnings were the North East (£22,830), Northern Ireland (£23,840), Wales, the East Midlands and the North West (£24,480) and Scotland (£24,650).

Gender pay gap narrows

The pay gap shows the gender pay differences based on existing Civil Service Statistics methodology that uses full-time equivalent earnings and excludes non-consolidated bonuses. There are methodological differences between these data and those that are required by the Equality Act (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017. Government departments will be separately publishing their gender pay gap data to comply with the new legal requirements.

The gender pay gap for all employees, calculated as the difference between the median pay for males and females, decreased from 12.7% on 31 March 2017 to 12.2% on 31 March 2018. This measure depends on the pay of part-time employees being converted to full-time equivalent salaries. The gender pay gap for full-time employees decreased from 11.0% to 8.6%. There was a fall from 9.1% to 6.3% for part-time employees.

Of all responsibility levels, the largest gender pay gap was that of part-time Senior Civil Service responsibility level, increasing from 11.5% to 15.0%. The Senior Civil Service overall gender pay gap rose from 4.2% to 5.5% from 31 March 2017 to 31 March 2018. Figure 11 shows the median annual full-time equivalent gross salary of all employees by gender and responsibility level.

The Public sector employment release provides quarterly employment statistics covering the entire public sector, including central government, local government and public corporations. It also provides the official measure of Civil Service employment.

The Civil Service statistics Quality and Methodology Information report contains important information on:

• the strengths and limitations of the data and how it compares with related data
• uses and users of the data
• how the output was created
• the quality of the output including the accuracy of the data

Response rates

All government departments and agencies responded to the survey for the year ending 31 March 2018. Departments are not always able to provide complete information for every variable and users should consider this known under-coverage and non-response issue when interpreting the statistics, particularly over time.

Due to rounding, the sum of constituent items in tables may not always agree exactly with the totals shown.