Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the civil service headcount for their Department was on (a) 15 November 2022 and (b) 1 February 2020.

As at 1 February 2020, the headcount of the Department was 7179.

As at 15 November 2022, the headcount of the Department was 8358.

This growth reflects a number of key areas, such as emergency response functions in response to COVID-19 and Ukraine, and policy and delivery teams supporting the Department’s skills, schools and families reform agenda. This includes ongoing growth of the academies sector. This also reflects specialist digital, data, and technology, and commercial roles, including replacing managed services where possible to deliver greater value for money.