Accredited official statistics

Background quality report: civilian personnel statistics January 2023

Updated 21 November 2024

1. Contact

Responsible statistician: Analysis Civilian Head of Branch
Further information/mailing list: Analysis-Civilian-Enquiries@mod.gov.uk

Background quality report: Background quality report

2. Introduction & Statistical Presentation

The numbers of civilian personnel employed by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) are published on a biannual basis as a National Statistic. These data are accompanied by an Official Statistic on Diversity on the MOD page of www.gov.uk.

View the full collection of previously published Background Quality Reports BQR Index.

Biannual Civilian Personnel Report (BCPR)

• Presents the numbers, intake and outflow of all civilian personnel employed by the Ministry of Defence. The published figures are mainly counts of numbers (strengths) and movements (flows) of civilian personnel for a range of categories.
• National Statistic.
• Biannual (data as at April and October), published six to eight weeks after reference date to allow product processing.
• Biannual Civilian Personnel Report (BCPR)

The publication was published on a quarterly basis, following a public consultation in 2017 the frequency of the publication moved to a bi-annual basis. For. Publications up to October 2018, issued on quarterly basis can be found at:Quarterly Civilian Personnel Report (QCPR).

In 2017, Analysis Civilian completed a consultation on reducing publication of QCPR from quarterly to twice a year for the following reasons:

• The information could still be provided to internal customers, but published less frequently, reducing the time spent on ministerial submissions and report commentary.
• To ensure best use of resource in a context of tightening resources and high levels of internal demand for analysis to contribute to improvements in the effectiveness and efficiency of the Armed Forces.
• To free up resource to spend on reactive ad hoc analysis to meet our policy customers’ requirements.

Analysis Civilian concluded that this would not have a significant detrimental impact on transparency, accountability or informing public debate, and reduced publication to a bi-annual basis at April and October points. The consultation process was in line with the UK Statistics Authority Code of Practice for Official Statistics and the Civil Service Consultation Principles (2016). Details of the proposed changes and results can be found at: Consultations.

Civilian Personnel Biannual Diversity Dashboard

• Presents figures on diversity declaration and representation of minority groups of civilian personnel employed by MOD Main TLBs of the Ministry of Defence.
• Official Statistic.
• Biannual (data as at April and October) published six to eight weeks after reference date to allow product processing.
• Civilian Personnel Biannual Diversity Dashboard.

The published figures are mainly counts of numbers (strengths) and movements (flows) of civilian personnel for a range of categories.

The strength figures are reported as Full Time Equivalent (FTE). This is preferable to headcount for civilian personnel, as it enables fair comparison with Service figures, where working part-time does not occur, and provides a better indication of the person hours available and salary costs. FTE is calculated from the contractually agreed number of hours worked per week divided by the number of hours per week which constitute full-time for the grade and location (this varies according to whether Industrial or Non-Industrial grade, and whether on the London or National pay scale).

Flows are measured using Headcount as users of the statistics are more interested in monitoring the number of new recruits and departures from the Department, rather than the FTE of these flows, and further, because changes in the working hours of personnel between periods render FTE flows unable to be reconciled with strengths. Diversity representation is also only appropriate to be presented as headcount, as this relates to the number of personnel to whom protected characteristics apply, not to the number of hours per week worked.

3. Statistical Processing

3.1 Source Data

(a) Data for civilians within MOD Main Top Level Budgetary Areas (TLBs) and Defence Equipment & Support Trading Entity (DE&S) are derived from the MOD’s MyHR Human Resources System. Prior to February 2022, data was collected from the MOD’s Human Resources Management System (HRMS) before it was replaced with MyHR.

• MOD Main TLBs: The major organisational groupings of the MOD directly responsible for the planning, management and delivery of departmental capability.
• DE&S Trading Entity: Responsible for equipping and supporting the UK’s Armed Forces. It has been reported as a bespoke trading entity from 1 July 2015, prior to this it was reported as a TLB.

(b) Trading Funds and Executive Agency data come from the validated personnel systems of the individual trading funds and executive agencies. Trading Funds are self accounting units that have greater freedom than other government departments in managing their own financial and management activities. From 1 July 2017 this total includes ‘Executive Agency’ data.

(c) Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) data are sourced directly from their HR system ‘Magellan’. RFA are a civilian-manned fleet, owned by the MOD, which supports Royal Navy ships around the world, supplying warships with fuel, ammunition and supplies.

(d) Locally engaged civilians (LEC) data are provided by the main budgetary area of the MOD responsible for them. LEC employees are recruited overseas exclusively for employment in support of the UK Armed Forces. LECs are also employed on terms and conditions analogous with local employment law and market forces, and not those of the UK.

3.2 Frequency of Data Collection

Data for MOD Main, DE&S, Trading Funds and Executive Agencies and RFA are collected on a monthly basis, LEC data is collected on a quarterly basis.

3.3 Data Collection

Data for MOD Main and DE&S is sourced from MyHR system (previously HRMS prior to February 2022). This is provided by Defence Business Support (DBS), the organisation that owns the data. Equivalent monthly data sets from the Trading Funds and Executive Agencies are provided. These data are processed and stored on a centralised data base system.

Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) data are sourced directly quarterly from their HR system ‘Magellan’ on a data file formatted and uploaded to a data interface tool.

LEC data is held separately on a dedicated excel spreadsheet. This allows it to be combined with MOD Main TLB’s and the DE&S data outputs as well as RFA data, to produce departmental level data at required levels of detail. In the event of data being unavailable, the appropriate figures from the previous quarter point are carried forward as estimates. These estimates are not revised once actual figures become available, as late deliveries of data are typically from small TLBs and the impact is minimal. However, if at a later date validation errors of a substantial impact are revealed, then figures are revised

The monthly extracts for civilian strengths, flows and diversity are taken from MyHR on the first calendar day and made available to the production team within 10 working days. The validation and editing takes around one week and production of the statistics and publications a further week. The aim is to publish the BCPR statistics on a biannual basis, within one month of data being made available. Diversity Dashboard statistics are published on a biannual basis, within two months of the data being available.

3.4 Data Validation

Data validation is conducted as part of the acceptance of the monthly extract prior to it being made available to the production team on a custom designed database. More detailed validation is then undertaken on the breakdowns of individual fields (including ethnicity, disability, gender, TLB, grade), and comparisons between the current and previous month’s figures. The consistency of gains, losses and inter-TLB transfers is also checked. Unusual variations are identified and investigated to identify explanations/reasons for the changes. In instances where our investigations detect data issues Analysis Civilian liaise with DBS to correct the data. The validation process focuses on the areas where problems with the data have been detected in the past.

4. Quality Management

4.1 Quality Assurance

The MOD’s quality management process for Official Statistics consists of three elements:

• Regularly monitoring and assessing quality risk via an annual assessment;
• Providing a mechanism for reporting and reviewing revisions/corrections to Official Statistics;
• Ensuring BQRs are publishing alongside reports and are updated regularly.

4.2 Quality Assessment

In the most recent Quality Assessment review, Analysis Civilian publications and analysis covered by this BQR were assessed as medium quality risk, slightly heightened in 2022 due to the introduction of the new HR system, MyHR. Assessment work was completed to ensure that all previous analysis and related data outputs produced previously can be produced under the new personnel system. The application of a revised data set from the new MyHR personnel system ensured continuity of data analysis and outputs across HR personnel systems.

5. Relevance

This section looks at the degree to which the statistical product meets user needs in both coverage and content.

5.1 User Needs

The main users of the civilian personnel statistics are Chief of Defence People (CDP) who use these statistics to monitor staffing levels and inform policy. The tables published have been developed in consultation with these customers to ensure they fully meet their needs. The statistics have been used to monitor the reduction in personnel numbers as part of the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR). However, the publications have a multitude of uses by various interested parties, both internally and external to the department.

The Diversity Dashboard meets the Departments obligations under Public Sector Equality Duty to provide information on its workforce in relation to the protected characteristics identified by the Equality Act 2010.

Analysis Civilian has worked closely with customers to ensure the civilian personnel statistics meets their needs. The United Kingdom Statistics Authority has designated that the ‘Biannual Civilian Personnel Report’ as National Statistics in accordance with the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 and signifying compliance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

The process of updating a publication to reflect customer and external requirements can incur a delay, due to the need to coordinate with other official stats (e.g. the review of usage of BAME terminology), or adhere to the process of official stats such as consultations to cover revisions to planned publications.

One limitation for users is the ability to differentiate between Defence Nuclear Organisation (DNO) and Submarine Delivery Agency (SDA). The two populations are not separately identifiable on data provided for the purposes of producing Official Statistics on the MOD civilian workforce. DNO is a TLB within MOD Main, and SDA is an Executive Agency of the MOD and not part of MOD Main.

The Cabinet Office publish an annual statistic on all home Civil Service employees, broken down by department including MOD. The data are sourced by all Civil Service organisations via the Annual Civil Service Employment Survey (ACSES). Analysis Civilian provide data via the ACSES for MOD Main and RFA, whilst the remaining Trading Funds and Agencies provide their own data returns separately. The methods in providing data to the ACSES and collating data for the BCPR and Diversity Dashboard serve different purposes and therefore figures may vary. The reports are available at: Civil Service Statistics.

Code of Practice

The process of determining compliance with the Code and designation as National Statistics is known as Assessment. Details of this assessment can be found at: Statistics Authority.

The UK Statistics Authority produces the ‘Code of practice for statistics’ which provides producers of official statistics with the detailed practices they must commit to when producing and releasing official statistics. The Code ensures that the statistics published by government serve the public. When producers of official statistics comply with the Code, it gives users of statistics and citizens confidence that published government statistics are of public value, are high quality and are produced by people and organisations that are worthy of trust.

Details can be found at: Code of Practice.

6. Accuracy and Reliability

6.1 Overall Accuracy

For all listed products within this document, methodology documentation has been produced and is updated as necessary, and core products are produced and checked via automated processes, and standardised data sets allowing verification against historic outputs, as well as new data outputs for current periods.

Please see the following accuracy limitations below:

• The two populations, DNO and SDA are not separately reported in both reports. Because the majority of the population classified as DNO on administrative data work for the SDA, this group is reported within ‘Trading Funds and Executive agencies’ as the DNO, rather than as a MOD Main Top Level Budget. Please see section 5.1 for further details.

• The Civilian Diversity Dashboard Official Statistics report figures for MOD Main level TLBs, excluding Trading Funds and agencies. As explained in section 5.1, approximately 450 individuals who work for the DNO are not separately identifiable on data provided to Analysis-Civilian for the purposes of producing Official Statistics on the MOD civilian workforce. Therefore, the diversity characteristics of approximately 450 DNO civilian employees are not reported in the dashboard.

• With the exception of gender and age, all protected characteristic fields on the HR systems are voluntary fields such as disability status, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation. Civilian personnel complete these based on their self-perceptions, but are under no obligation to complete these fields. It is not possible for Analysis Civilian to assess the accuracy or consistency of the declarations made by individuals within these fields.

• There was an HRMS reset of the disability field on 18 April 2011 to accommodate the new disability reporting requirements to match 2011 Census definitions. Insufficient numbers of personnel have made disability declarations since the reset to be able to report civilian disability representation rates with any validity from July 2011 to April 2019. During this time to enable reporting of disability figures to meet the MOD’s obligations under the public sector equality duty (PSED) and to provide some indication of the numbers of disabled people within the MOD, we have agreed to report numbers of people declared as disabled only when the numbers of people who have not declared their status is also reported. Since the declaration rates have now met the 60 per cent threshold, representation rates for disability will be reported from April 2019 onwards.

6.2 Data Revisions

Data revisions are handled in accordance with the MOD’s Official Statistics Revisions and Corrections Policy

7. Timeliness and Punctuality

7.1 Timeliness

The BCPR is released biannually in mid-May and mid-November, within one month of the data being made available. The Diversity Dashboard is released biannually in late May and late November, within two months of the data being made available. The publication dates ensure data is available and at a suitable level of accuracy and allow sufficient time for processing and producing the report.

7.2 Punctuality

All official statistics reports have been published on time to meet preannounced release dates. A one-year release schedule outlining the following financial year’s publication date is published on the GOV.UK Official Statistics Release Calendar. Future publication dates will also be announced on the UK Statistics Authority hub at least one month in advance. Transfer from Human Resources Management System (HRMS) to MyHR personnel system:

As of February 2022, due to the change in HR system, assessment work was completed to ensure that all previous analysis and related data outputs produced previously can be produced under the new personnel system. This resulted in delays to the publication of the April 22 BCPR and Diversity Dashboard reports.

8. Coherence and Compatibility

This section includes the main limitations regarding the coherence and comparability of the Biannual Civilian Personnel Report (BCPR) and the Civilian Personnel Biannual Diversity Dashboard.

The change in HR system from HRMS to MyHR in February 2022 led to some new data categories and resulted in changes to totals and percentages within the Diversity Dashboard. Within the accompanying ODS data sheet, any changes are signified by a time series break indicator, and published values and percentages before and after their break may not be fully comparable.

Structural changes have occurred during the time-series covered by MOD civilian personnel statistics. In some cases, this means that figures are not directly comparable across the whole period. To aid understanding of these changes and how they have impacted upon the figures the detail of these changes is provided here:

• As at 1 April 2018 approximately 1,160 posts transferred out of DE&S Trading Entity to form Defence Nuclear Organisation (DNO) as an Executive Agency, additionally approximately 80 personnel within DG Nuclear also transferred to DNO, moving from Level 1 to Level 0 reporting.

• As at 1 April 2018, approximately 400 posts forming the Defence Electronics Components Agency (DECA) previously reported in Head Office & Corporate Services (HO&Cs) within Level 1 were reported separately as an Executive Agency within level 0, for improved consistency and transparency of data reporting.

• As at 1 April 2020 650, posts in Head Office & Corporate Services (HO&Cs) covering security vetting in Defence Business Services UKSV were privatised.

• To reflect the different terms and conditions of LEC personnel, UK dependents are not included in LEC figures from October 2013. Prior to this, dependents of UK military personnel or UK-based civilian staff employed in overseas theatre (who were sometimes identified as UK dependents) had been included in LEC totals.

• Improvements in the way in which LEC information is recorded have meant the actual FTE of part-time LECs are now available. As such, from January 2012 onwards, LEC figures use these actual values where possible. Previously published LEC FTE figures from April 2010 to October 2011 were not revised as the impact was minimal compared to the resource required, so previous LEC FTE figures therefore assume a 0.5 FTE for all part-time personnel.

9. Accessibility and Clarity

Both the BCPR and the Diversity Dashboard reports are published on the Defence GOV.UK website. Publications are available from 0930 hours on the day of release. 24-hour pre-release access to the report is available to a limited distribution list within the MOD. The full list can be found in the pre-release access list.

From September 2020 in line with the current regulations on accessibility, the BCPR and Diversity Dashboard has been produced in HTML format, with data tables also available in Open Document Spreadsheet (ODS) formats.

Detailed analysis and commentary are provided in the publications and identify some of the notable features of these data. The publications are accompanied by notes explaining the categories and definitions used and the main changes that have impacted the statistics.

10. Trade offs between output quality components

The trade-off between timeliness and accuracy/depth of analysis has ensured that the information is made available as soon as possible after the end of the reporting period.

11. Confidentiality and Security

11.1 Confidentiality – Policy

All staff involved in the production process have undertaken the necessary Data Protection Act training and all MOD, Civil Service and data protection regulations are adhered to.

11.2 Confidentiality - Data Treatment

All published outputs are counts of individuals in particular groupings. Disclosure control is applied to statistical or numeric information to safeguard the confidentiality of individuals. ‘Disclosure control’ refers to the efforts made to reduce the risk of disclosure, such as applying statistical methods to protect ‘personally identifiable information’ (PII) in aggregate data tables. These safeguards can take many forms (for example, data suppression, rounding, recoding etc.).

Where rounding has been used, totals and sub-totals have been rounded separately and so may not equal the sums of their rounded parts. When rounding to the nearest 10, numbers ending in “5” have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias.

An updated MOD Disclosure Control and Rounding policy has been published on GOV.UK and this policy has been applied to MOD civilian personnel statistics. The policy is available at Defence Statistics Policies.

11.3 Security

The data is stored, accessed and analysed using the MOD’s restricted network and IT systems, and the access to raw data is password protected.

Analysis Civilian welcome feedback on this Background Quality Report or any of the statistics mentioned.