Growth of the Civil Service is Out of Control

Britain's civil service has ballooned by a third in just a decade, leaving taxpayers funding more than half a million officials and a salary bill of over £22 billion. Podcast host Duncan Barkes is joined by the TPA's research director Darwin Friend and former TPA chairman Mike Denham to discuss new TaxPayers' Alliance research into the growth of the civil service, which reveals headcount has risen from 418,340 in 2016 to 557,825 in 2026. They examine the explosion in senior officials and six-figure salaries, why Whitehall continues to expand despite repeated promises of reform, and whether shifting civil servants around the country really amounts to decentralisation.