Public Sector Workers (Hansard, 13 June 2003)

§ Mr. Austin Mitchell
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the change in the number of public sector workers in each year from 2003–04 to 2005–06, broken down by(a) Department and (b) region. [115933]

§ Mr. Boateng
The total number of public sector workers in 2001 was 5.259 million. Departments have estimated that public sector employment will increase by over 200,000 between 2003 and 2006 as a result of 2002 Spending Review commitments. This implies an average increase of approximately 70,000 per year. It is for Departments to provide individual workforce projections by region, because they are responsible for their own work force planning.
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force in the UK were employed in the public sector in each of the last five years, broken down by (a)central Government, (b) local government, (c) non-executive agencies and (d) the NHS. [114857]

§ John Healey
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter, from John Pullinger to Mr. Anthony Steen dated 3 June 2003: The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question on how manypeople, and what percentage of the total workforce in the UK were employed in the publicsector in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) central government, (b) local government (c) non-executive agencies and (d) the NHS. I am replying in his absence.(114857) The latest information is given in the attached table. Estimates of workforce jobs are based on the results of regular sample surveys of employers which count the number of employee jobs. Full information on public sector employment is published once a year; data for 2002 is expected to be published on the Office for National Statistics website shortly. Cabinet Office collect and publish data on Civil Service staffing levels twice-yearly. The latest data, for October 2002, was published by press notice in February this year. An annual publication, "Civil Service Statistics", contains more detailed analyses based on the April data collection of each year. The current edition, based on data from April 2001, is due to be updated in the summer of this year. A separate Cabinet Office publication, "Public Bodies 2002" gives details of employment in Non-Departmental Public Bodies. Copies of both these publications and the press notices are available from the House of Commons Library.