Civil Service departments and agencies

Civil servants are employed by central government departments and the agencies that sit under them, not by “the Civil Service” as a single body. Each department is the employer for its own staff and sets its own pay ranges within Treasury limits. There are dozens of departments and hundreds of agencies and public bodies, and gov.uk lists them all on its organisations page.

Ministerial departments

Ministerial departments are led by a Secretary of State or other minister and carry out government policy. Examples include the Department for Work and Pensions, the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Defence, HM Treasury, the Department for Education and the Department of Health and Social Care.

They vary enormously in size. Some are mainly policy departments with offices in London and a few regional hubs. Others run large operational services: DWP runs Jobcentre Plus and the benefits system, and the Ministry of Justice runs prisons, probation and courts through its agencies.

Non-ministerial departments

These are government departments without their own minister, led by a board or a chief executive, usually because their work should be kept at arm’s length from politics. HM Revenue and Customs is the biggest. Others include HM Land Registry, the Food Standards Agency, the Crown Prosecution Service, Ofsted and the Office for National Statistics (through the UK Statistics Authority). Their staff are civil servants with the same pension and similar terms.

Executive agencies

An executive agency is part of a department but run separately to deliver a specific service. Staff are civil servants and the parent department sets the overall pay framework, though agencies often have their own pay ranges. Examples:

Agency	Parent department	Typical work
HM Prison and Probation Service	Ministry of Justice	Prisons, probation
HM Courts and Tribunals Service	Ministry of Justice	Courts, tribunals
DVLA	Department for Transport	Driving licences, vehicle tax
Companies House	Department for Business and Trade	Company registration
UK Health Security Agency	Department of Health and Social Care	Health protection

Some well-known parts of departments, such as Border Force within the Home Office, are directorates rather than separate agencies, but for a job seeker the effect is the same.

Arm’s length bodies that are not the Civil Service

Non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) and public corporations are funded by government but are usually separate employers whose staff are not civil servants. Examples include the Environment Agency, Natural England, Arts Council England and many regulators. Their jobs are often advertised on Civil Service Jobs anyway, and many offer the Civil Service pension through an admission arrangement. Read the advert: it normally states whether the post is a Civil Service post.

Pay is set department by department

The grade structure is shared across government: AA, AO, EO, HEO, SEO, Grade 7, Grade 6, then the Senior Civil Service. Pay ranges for those grades are set by each department, so an EO in one department can earn noticeably more than an EO in another. For 2026/27 the Treasury’s pay remit guidance caps departmental paybill growth at 3.5 per cent, with a possible extra 1 per cent for targeted business cases. That figure is a budget limit, not a guaranteed rise for each person. Ranges by department are covered in Civil Service grades and pay.

Pensions are the same across departments. Members of alpha pay 4.6 per cent on pay up to £36,199, rising to 8.05 per cent above £150,000. See Civil Service pension (alpha).

Where the jobs are

Most civil servants work outside London. Operational departments have large sites across the UK: DWP and HMRC have offices and contact centres in most regions, the DVLA is based in Swansea, and prisons, courts and jobcentres are spread nationwide. Policy roles have also been moving out of London to regional hubs under the Places for Growth programme, so many departments now advertise posts that can be based in one of several named cities.

Location affects pay in some departments, which pay more in London or national pay zones. It also affects how much office attendance is expected, which is set by each department. Read the location section of the advert carefully, as some list several possible locations and others mean a single office. For grade-by-grade guides to entry-level jobs, see administrative officer (AO) and executive officer (EO).

Moving between departments

Because each department is a separate employer, moving between them means applying for a new job. Civil servants can apply for posts advertised internally across government (“across government” vacancies) as well as externally advertised ones. Your continuous service usually carries over between Civil Service employers, which matters for annual leave, sick pay and the Civil Service Compensation Scheme. Loans and secondments between departments are common, especially in policy.

Recruitment works the same way everywhere: Success Profiles, the shared behaviours framework, and the same nationality rules. UK nationals can apply for any post, and about 75 per cent of posts are also open to Commonwealth citizens and EEA nationals with the right status. Reserved posts are UK nationals only.

Devolved governments

The Scottish Government and the Welsh Government employ civil servants who are part of the Home Civil Service but recruit through their own channels. The Northern Ireland Civil Service is a separate service with its own recruitment and pay. See public sector jobs in Northern Ireland.

To search everything in one place, use Civil Service Jobs and filter by department.