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Public sector headcount and cost reductions

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WQ.293/2025

WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE CHAIR OF THE STATES EMPLOYMENT BOARD

BY DEPUTY M.B. ANDREWS OF ST. HELIER NORTH

QUESTION SUBMITTED ON MONDAY 30th JUNE 2025

ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON MONDAY 7th JULY 2025

Question

"Further to the response to Written Question 257/2025, in which it was stated that there had been "a rise of more than 50% in the cost of running the public sector" since 2018, will the Chair provide –

  1. the headcount of all Government employees, broken down by salary band, for each year since 2018; and
  2. details of any actions under consideration to reduce staff numbers and costs?"

Answer

  1. The table below shows Government employees, broken down by Full Time Equivalent (FTE) and salary band, at 1st January of each year since 2018.

 

Grade Band

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

2025

CS1 - CS5 and Equivalent

819

818

826

916

881

899

883

930

CS6 - CS8 and Equivalent

1833

1823

1862

2002

2077

2207

2298

2367

CS9 - CS11 and Equivalent

2448

2436

2497

2658

2718

2897

3123

3310

CS12 - C14 and Equivalent

597

663

687

687

761

862

978

1032

CS15+ and Equivalent

333

344

361

368

406

399

426

440

Grand Total

6031

6084

6233

6631

6843

7264

7708

8079

  1. The Council of Ministers will continue to reprioritise and reduce spend.

The external recruitment freeze and restrictions on the use of consultancy will remain in place until at least March 2026. The results, so far, are as follows:

If we had not introduced a recruitment freeze in August last year and growth had continued as before, then it is likely that we would be about 325 FTE higher in May 2025 than we actually are. Officials estimate that this is up to £23m per year avoided for now and future years.

In the last six months, total roles have begun to stabilise with only a 43 FTE total rise, despite 76 FTE more posts in Health Care Jersey and Children, Young People, Education and Skills. Back- office departments are getting smaller.

Consultancy and temporary staffing spend has dropped by £29m between 2023 and 2024 and that trend is expected to continue into 2025.