Department for Transport written question – answered at on 17 November 2023.
Emily Thornberry
Shadow Attorney General
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to Cabinet Office statistics on Permanent and temporary civil servants by sex, age band and department: 2023, published on 31 October 2023; how many permanent civil servants other than those working in agencies worked for his Department on 31 March (a) 2011, (b) 2016 and (c) 2020.
Anthony Browne
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The headcount for permanent civil servants working for the core Department for Transport in March 2011 was 1822, in March 2016 it was 2065, and in March 2020 it was 2937.
The full data sets are published on gov.uk under DfT workforce management information.
Yes2 people think so
No6 people think not
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Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
