Our reaction to Mel Stride’s big day at the Tory conference

There are savings to be made in the civil service. But an arbitrary headcount target & ignoring new demands on the state won’t deliver them

The hard work of doing that falls to the govt

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/mel-...

Comment | How Keir Starmer’s government can be built for delivery

With delivery now a central priority, government must get the metrics, routines and feedback loops right, say @emma-conway.bsky.social and @howesdaniel.bsky.social

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/star...

Special Delivery! @emma-conway.bsky.social and I have been thinking about how Keir Starmer and co (especially Darren Jones) can make a success of 'phase two' - which is all about delivering on the government's priorities. Read more here: www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/star...

New @instituteforgovernment.org.uk report by me, @gemmatetlow.bsky.social and @jillongovt.bsky.social on how Reeves should approach tax this Autumn

With tax rises inevitable, Reeves should reject path of least resistance and embrace tax reform 1/3

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...

The core dept DSIT has 3195 FTE staff (up from 2275 Q1 '25), but the Met Office (2350), Intellectual Property Office (1620), UK Space Agency (315) and BDUK (255), which are executive agencies of DSIT, are included in the overall size of the department.

5/ The government has big intentions to reduce the size of the civil service, which have not been reflected in this data release. This is likely due to the time lag involved in initiatives such as voluntary exit schemes. Stay tuned to see if next quarter’s stats indicate anything different!

4/ The most striking change from the previous quarter is the large proportional increase in the size of DSIT, which has grown by 12.8%. This is due to a transfer of staff from GDS in the Cabinet Office to DSIT, reflective of this MoG change: hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2024...

3/ The largest department is still the MoJ with over 90,000 staff, most of whom work outside the ‘core’ department in HM Prison and Probation Service. The smallest department, DCMS, is over 40 times smaller, with 2,125 staff.

2/ The headline statistic is that the CS has grown (again) to an overall FTE size of 516,950 – 3,750 more than this time last year (0.73%) and 480 (0.1%) more than last quarter (Q1 2025).

1/ If you've been itching to know how the size of the civil service has changed... we at the @instituteforgovernment.org.uk have you covered.

I've crunched the numbers from the latest ONS data release, which you can read about here: www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/ci...

David Lammy should reverse the proposed “democratic lock” over the Sentencing Council

We need a politics that does not pile pressure on ministers to overrule independent decisions, says @drmatthewgill.bsky.social www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/davi...