6/ Check out the rest of Whitehall Monitor for analysis of political leadership, CS pay, morale, professions, digital & AI, major projects and more by my wonderful colleagues!
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...

5/ While the number of ALBs increased to 306 by end of FY 2024/25, total funding allotted to ALBs in 2023/24 (latest year of data) actually fell by 0.61% in real terms. This cut was felt across NDPBs whose funding decreased by 7.6%. Worth noting: 109 ALBs receive no govt funding at all

4/ The CS grew again in 2025 (520,440 FTE as of Q3), but growth was slower than 2024 (1% vs. 3.8%). This is due to fewer entrants as opposed to more leavers - probably b/c of short-term fixes like recruitment freezes. Govt will need to address structural issues for size to come down and stay down

3/ Perm secs remain incredibly experienced civil servants. Cab Sec Wormald became DG in 2006 and perm sec in 2012! However, new perm secs have some external experience (e.g. JRF, Goldman), showing value placed on bringing new ideas into the top positions.

(PS do not ask how long this chart took me)

2/ Over 1/2 of all depts have new perm secs at the helm since GE 2024. While this scale of change is not unusual (9/16 dept heads changed in 2010), it does pose challenges as leaders get to grips with briefs. Add in Sep reshuffle and 5 depts have both new a SoS and perm sec (i.e. big big change!)

Tricky to disaggregate those two factors cleanly as they were both definite contributors, but the sharp increase in growth rate around 2020/21 is mostly due to Covid response - this added to an already-growing CS since Brexit in 2016. More here: www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/defaul...

3/ Keep an eye out for Whitehall Monitor 2026 in the new year for deeper analysis on these trends (and much more) @instituteforgovernment.org.uk

2/ The bulk of this increase occurred at HMRC, which grew by 1185, but the Cabinet Office saw the largest proportional increase (4.4%).

This addition of 695 FTE staff comes as up to 1200 staff are being paid to leave the CO by May 2027 through voluntary exit schemes…

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!