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Civil Service Staff numbers for October 2002 were published today. At 1 October 2002, the number of permanent Civil Servants was 499,630 (full-time equivalents). This was an increase of 9,390 or 1.9 per cent on six months earlier. There was, however, a decrease of 940 in the number of casual staff between April 2002 and October 2002.

Taking permanent and casual staff together there was an increase of 8,450 or 1.7 per cent in comparison to April 2002 figures.

In the complete year to October 2002, the number of permanent staff increased by 19,630 or 4.1 per cent. There was a decrease of 1,880 in the number of casual staff, so the overall level of staffing increased by some 17,750 or 3.6 per cent.

Over the six-month period to October 2002, numbers of full-time staff increased by 6,820 and the number of part-time staff increased by 4,040 bringing total staff numbers on a headcount basis to 526,900. Part-time staff represented 15.4 per cent of all Civil Servants, up from 14.9 per cent six months before and from 14.4 per cent in October 2001.

Main Changes in Departments and Agencies Organisational changes during the six months to October 2002 include: ? National Loans and Investments Office merged with the Debt Management Office in July 2002.

Significant changes in permanent staff numbers in the six months to October 2002 include:

- DWP - up 3,340. Staff have been recruited:-

- The Pension Service as a result of setting up Pension Centres and the introduction of Pension Credit,

- in Child Support Agency staffing levels have continued to increase because of the major programme work required by the introduction of the Child Support reforms,

- DWP have increased their staffing to support the continuing introduction of the DWP modernisation programme.

- Jobcentre Plus has decreased by around 1,500 staff in line with their planned profile largely as a result of the transfer of some staff to the Pension Service and limited recruitment.

- Inland Revenue - up 2,040, staff have been recruited for the continued expansion of the contact centre programme and for the preparation of the New Tax Credits.

- Home Office - up 1,120 due to the continued recruitment by Immigration and Nationality Directorate.

- OFSTED - up 200 following the extension of Ofsted's work to include responsibility for the regulation and inspection of childminding and day care, and the inspection of further education for 16 - 19 year olds. It has been necessary to increase staffing levels within the core functions to support this growth.

Variations in casual staffing levels can be attributed to the local needs of departments.

Diversity in the Civil Service

Diversity figures as at 1 October 2002 show:

- 274,130 staff working in the Civil Service were women; 52.0 per cent of staff in post, compared with 51.8 per cent in April 2002.

- New categories for ethnic monitoring were introduced in the 2001 Population Census. The main change was the introduction of a 'mixed' ethnic group category. Following this a re- survey of the ethnicity of Civil Service staff was launched in 2001 to improve data quality and to enable comparison with new national population data. The re-survey exercise was introduced after extensive consultation and work with departments and agencies, unions, the Office for National Statistics, and the Commission for Racial Equality. The data from this re-survey exercise is being reported for the second time in these statistics and is showing that the proportion of staff who are from ethnic minority groups on the new basis is now around 7.9 per cent compared with 7.6 per cent in April 2002. Data from the Labour Force Survey for Spring 2002 shows that, on a comparable basis, 6.5 per cent of the UK economically active were from ethnic minority backgrounds.

- The proportion of staff known to have a disability stayed at around 3.6 per cent, the same as in April 2002. The Ministry of Defence do not consider their current figures sufficiently accurate for inclusion in the overall Civil Service figure on this occasion. The exclusion of this data for MoD affects the proportion of people recorded as having a disability in the Civil Service as a whole.

- These statistics on ethnic background and disability should, however, be interpreted with caution, particularly year on year changes. Information on Ethnic Origin and Disability are collected on voluntary, self-classification questionnaires and there are a considerable number of non-respondents.

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. The headline staffing figures are full-time equivalents and give appropriate weight to the hours worked by part-time staff in calculating full-time equivalents. On average, a part-time employee works for 3.3 days a week. Figures quoted in the news release are rounded. More detailed figures, including details on a headcount basis are also provided in the media brief, available from the Cabinet Office Press Office on request.

2. Staff employed in the Scottish Parliament are not included in these figures. Like the Westminster Parliament, the Scottish Parliament is not part of the Civil Service.

3. Tables showing staff in post numbers at 1 October 2002 by department and by agency are available from 020 7276 1532 or on the website address below. They give figures for permanent and casual staff, split into Industrial and Non-Industrial, showing the numbers on a Full-Time Equivalent and Headcount basis. Civil Service summary staffing statistics are published twice a year, for April and October. Details of the numbers of staff in each department and executive agency are placed in the Libraries of the two Houses and made available on the Internet at:
www.civil-service.gov.uk/statistics

4. More detailed statistical information about Civil Service staff is published annually. Civil Service Statistics 2001, relating to the year to 1st April 2001, was published in June 2002 and is available to the media from Cabinet Office Press Office or on the Website above.

5. National Statistics are produced to high professional standards set out in the National Statistics Code of Practice. They undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure that they meet customer needs. Cabinet Office press notices are
available on the World Wide Web:
http://www.nds.coi.gov.uk/coi/coipress.nsf