Whitehall Monitor 2024

7 WHITEHALL MONITOR 2024 How the civil service changed in 2023 Size and turnover of the civil service The recent growth of the civil service The growth of the civil service has eased slightly The size of the civil service has declined steadily since the Second World War, during which it more than trebled in size. [...] We have focused on how and why the civil service has grown since 2016 and the EU referendum, given the extent of political commentary on the subject and because the quality of the data in recent years is better than it was in 2010. [...] 1 HOW THE CIVIL SERVICE CHANGED IN 2023 18 How the civil service changed in 2023 The data also chimes with the results of the Civil Service People Survey, which has found that the proportion of civil servants who want to leave their organisation either as soon as possible or in the next year has increased for the past two years, from a recent low of 17% in 2020 to 21% in 2022. [...] A large proportion of policy professionals also remain based in London (67%) compared to the other nations and regions of the UK (Figure 1.20), while an analysis of the regional composition of the whole civil service shows the extent to which even grade 6 and 7 roles are concentrated in the capital (Figure 1.21).* * The data used in Figure 1.20 and Figure 1.21 includes civil servants in the Scotti. [...] This now accounts for 40% of the total cost of the portfolio (an increase from £208bn in 2022 to £348bn in 2023 at 2023/24 prices); as the criteria for exemption hasn’t changed, this may be a function of the phasing of projects in scope but it presents an unwelcome reduction in the extent to which parliament and the public can scrutinise the government’s delivery of major projects.