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With the civil service headcount swelling by more than 1,000 people in the past five years, Government departments could now have to publish information about its staff headcount and turnover twice a year to "provide further transparency".
Public companies associated with the States could also be encouraged to do the same annually, if a backbencher’s proposition passes the States Assembly.
Deputy Max Andrews has lodged a proposition – due to be debated on 3 October – which requests that the Government publish information about the headcount of each department, including a breakdown of full-time, part-time, fixed-term, zero-hour, and contracted staff.
He is also seeking to make the number of vacancies and staff turnover in each department public to "facilitate a more transparent view of the growing, or shrinking, size of the Government".
Pictured: Deputy Max Andrews hopes that the information could "facilitate a more transparent view of the growing, or shrinking, size of the Government".
The proposition further requests that the Treasury Minister ensures that 'States Owned Entities' – such as Andium Homes, Jersey Post, and JT – also publish their staff data annually, while the third part asks for liaison with 'Arm's Length Organisations' – such as Digital Jersey, Visit Jersey, and Jersey Sport – to ensure they do the same.
This follows on from propositions approved earlier this year which request that the States Employment Board report annually its breakdown of staff and gender pay.
In the report accompanying his latest proposition, Deputy Andrews said: "More work needs to be done to publish data across all Government departments, Arm's Length Organisations, and States Owned Entities."
He said he believed his proposition would "provide further transparency as it will provide a full picture of the headcount, vacancies, and staff turnover across the whole public sector and not simply confined to the remit of Government departments".
Earlier this year, it emerged that the Government's headcount had swelled by more than 1,000 people in the past five years.
At the end of 2018, the States staff headcount stood at 7,012 with 166 people classed in the top-earning bracket (£100,000+).
But the end-of-year figures for 2022 show that the public sector ballooned to 8,127 with 209 in the £100,000+ bracket.
And each of the top three earning brackets (£60,000 to £79,999, £80,000 to £99,999 and £100,000+) increased from the previous years.
Pictured: The official table showing headcount in the public sector from 2018 to 2022.
Despite the growing headcount, it was also revealed that the Government had 671 vacancies – with all but one department reporting vacant posts.
According to the February figures, Health and Community Services had the highest number of jobs needing to be filled at 267.
Customer and Local Services is the only department not reported to be understaffed.
The figures were released on 27 February 2023 by Chief Minister Kristina Moore, in her capacity as Chair of the States Employment Board, following a question from Deputy Max Andrews.
In her response, Deputy Moore explained that not all roles were being actively recruited for.
She said that, in some cases, the Government may have made a decision to "delay [recruitment] or defer going to market".
Past and present Treasury Ministers have previously laid the blame for the growing headcount and high level of spending on external labour at former Chief Executive Charlie Parker's door.
Mr Parker had pledged that his 'OneGov' vision - which involved tearing up the then-current government structure and creating new departments - would create efficiencies and reduce the size of the workforce.
Pictured: The OneGov plan was unveiled by former CEO Charlie Parker in 2018.
Current Treasury Minister Deputy Ian Gorst, who was the Chief Minister who recruited Mr Parker, told the Politics Disassembled Podcast last year: "That programme at the start we said was going to save money and reduce the size of government – we sit here today and we're spending £200m more than what we were per annum and we've got hundreds more staff in Government.
"That's not what my vision is, that's not what my vision was."
Meanwhile, the last administration's Treasury Minister, Susie Pinel, previously told Express that more civil servants had had to be employed in order to "pursue the model that was introduced by the former CEO Mr Parker, and it's taken quite a while to put everything in place."
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