Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

Everyone who is a civil servant is obviously included unless he or she is specifically excluded. Everyone who signs the civil service code is included unless he or she is specifically excluded. The right hon. Member for Horsham asked an interesting question—whether commissioners themselves were civil servants. The answer is that they are not, because they are appointed by the Queen. New clause 33 would require the Minister for the Civil Service to publish an annual report giving details of the structure, cost and state of the civil service, and proposes that separate reports may also be published in respect of the devolved Administrations. Currently, each Department and agency, along with the devolved Administrations, publishes an annual report setting out in detail its work, performance, structure and financial position. The Office for National Statistics is responsible for publishing, each quarter, the number of civil servants employed by each Department and agency. The ONS also produces annual statistics that provide for more detailed information on the composition of the civil service. The detailed information, published by the ONS as "Civil Service Statistics", contains more than 40 different tables, and a range of demographic and other information.