In 2022/23 ALBs employed
390,845 Staff (FTE)
The ALB workforce has increased from
318,714 in 2020
HM Revenue and Customs Employed
63,738 FTE
and are the largest ALB employer.
Reclassification of Network Rail in 2022 added
41,147 FTE
to this total.
ALB Staff
ALB staffing: Headlines
ALB employee types
In 2022/23, there were 390,845 staff (FTE) who were employed by Arm’s Length Bodies.
Civil Servants: Of this total, 62% of staff employed in these organisations were Civil Servants. Within the ALB landscape, Civil Servants work primarily within Non-Ministerial Departments and Executive Agencies.
Public Servants: Public Servants made up 38% of the workforce, and are primarily employed to work in Executive Non-Departmental Public Bodies.
Mixed Workforces: A tiny proportion of around 0.08% of the workforce were employed in Advisory and Tribunal NDPBs, where staff may be either Civil or Public Servants. Staff employed in these organisations are often employed in a part-time basis, and may spend part of their time working for other ALBs or their sponsoring departments.
Departments sponsoring ALBs with the largest workforces
While ALBs employed around 390,845 staff (FTE), the vast majority of these staff (268,754) were employed by ALBs sponsored by just 5 ministerial departments, representing 68.8%. The departments sponsoring the largest ALB workforces were: Minsitry of Justice (82,493), HMRC (67,519), and Department for Transport (66,912). As a Non-ministerial department, HMRC operates as its own sponsor, whilst also sponsoring the Valuation Office Agency.
ALBs by geography
Scope of Influence
The vast majority of ALBs sponsored by UK Government departments have operational scope within England (97%). Most ALBs also operate within Wales (76%), whereas less than half operate within Scotland (48%) and Northern Ireland (45%).
Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0 Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2024
Headquarters locations
The location of headquarters of ALBs sponsored by the UK Government are spread across the UK. The vast majority of ALBs have their headquarters in London (126), whilst the South West (24) and West Midlands (20) had the second and third most ALB headquarters respectively. The North East (2) and Northern Ireland (3) were the regions with the least amount of ALB headquarters. 74 ALBs (around a quarter of all ALBs) reported that they have no designated headquarters.
Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0 Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2024
London-based staff
While the majority of ALBs have their headquarters based in London, the majority of the ALB workforce is based outside of London. Within the total ALB workforce of 390,845, the majority of staff (335,636) were employed outside of London, representing 85.9%. This trend reflects the Government’s wider Places For Growth programme, which aims to create more opportuntities for the Civil Service to deliver in areas outside of London.
Largest ALB employers in London
Of the 55,209.25 staff employed in London by ALBs, 29,554.3 where employed by 5 ALBs, representing 53.6% of all London-based ALB staff. The ALBs with the largest London-based workforces were HM Revenue and Customs (9,165), HM Prison and Probation Service (7,483), and Network Rail (6,918).
London-based ALB staff proportions
While the ALBs above employed the most London-based staff, the majority of these ALBs still employ most of their staff outside of London. For example, whilst HMRC employed around 9,165 staff in London, they employed around 63,738 outside of London, meaning only 14% of HMRC’s entire staff were based within London during 2022/23.
Comparisons with 2020
When compared with the number of staff employed by ALBs in the Public Bodies Directory from 2020 (318,714 FTE), the number of staff employed by ALBs has increased by more than 72,000. Most of this is attributable to changes in the NDPB workforce, which increased by nearly 46,000 staff during this time period. Notably, this increase largely reflects the addition of Network Rail as an Arm’s Length Body which had around 41,000 staff in their workforce during 2022/23.
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