Annual Civil Service Employment Survey: Data for 2017 released along with new professions dataset

Annual Civil Service Employment Survey

On 19 July results from the 2017 Annual Civil Service Employment Survey (ACSES) have been updated on Nomis.

As with previous years, the ACSES dataset gives statistics on the age, responsibility level (grade), department, gender, ethnicity, disability status, salary band and national identity of the Civil Service workforce.

ACSES: New dataset including Civil Service Professions

In addition to the ACSES dataset released in previous years, a new dataset has been released for 2017 allowing users to access professions data.

Employees within the Civil Service are allocated to one of 28 profession groups. Professions relate to the post occupied by the person and are not dependent on qualifications the individual may have. Professions involves matching people data to posts. This is considered to have a lower level of precision than other HR metrics so caution must be exercised when drawing any conclusions from these data.

Previous years' data are not available due to the reliability of professions data.

Background

ACSES provides a count of home Civil Service employees. It excludes the Northern Ireland Civil Service, other Crown servants and employees in the wider public sector, for example, employees of Non-Departmental Public Bodies and the National Health Service. From 2015 the Central Government Security workforce is excluded.

Accessing ACSES Data

Use the data query option to access the dataset:

  • Annual Civil Service Employment Survey link to data
  • Annual Civil Service Employment Survey with professions link to data

You can also obtain som ACSES data from the local authority based profiles link to profiles

Background Notes

Survey details

  • ACSES is a complete census of the Civil Service. All Civil Service departments are contacted and asked to complete a return which contains an individual record for each civil servant.
  • The reference date for the survey is 31 March. Departments are asked to provide information for all staff in post at the reference date and all staff who left the Civil Service during the 12-month period prior to the reference date

Summary Quality Report

  • A Summary Quality Report link to pdf for ACSES gives further details about the survey including the intended uses of the statistics, their general quality and the methods used to produce them.

Common pitfalls in interpreting the series

  • This release counts all home Civil Service employees. Civil Service Statistics excludes the Northern Ireland Civil Service, other Crown servants and employees in the wider public sector, for example, employees of Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs) and the National Health Service (NHS).
  • Statistics are published on the gender, ethnicity, disability status and age of the Civil Service workforce. All diversity statistics relate to civil servants counted on a headcount basis.

Accuracy

  • All government departments and agencies responded to the survey for the year ending 31 March 2017.
  • Departments are not always able to provide complete information for every variable and users should consider this known under-coverage and non-response issue when interpreting the statistics, particularly over time.
  • The main reason for under-coverage and non-response is that it can take time for HR systems to catch up when a new employee joins their department. Departments are also increasingly moving to self-service systems which require individuals to maintain their personal information via an intranet service. While it is the responsibility of departments to review the quality of information held and encourage regular updates, an element of non-response is expected.