UK government departments: spending, staff and ministers
GOV.UK lists 23 of the departments below as ministerial departments; HM Revenue and Customs is a non-ministerial department. For each one, its page sets out spending from HM Treasury's Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2026 (PESA, published 16 July 2026), civil service staff numbers from the Cabinet Office's Civil Service Statistics 2026 (at 31 March 2026), the secretary of state from the UK Parliament Members API, and the latest National Audit Office reports.
Two departments were created or renamed on 20 July 2026. PESA 2026 and Civil Service Statistics 2026 came out before then and report the earlier departments, so those pages show the earlier departments' figures separately.
| Department | Secretary of State | Total DEL, 2025-26 (PESA) | Civil servants, 31 March 2026 (headcount) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attorney General's Office | Ellie Reeves | £982 million | 12,405 |
| Cabinet Office | Louise Haigh | £1.1 billion | 10,235 |
| Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade | Jonathan Reynolds | £3.4 billion + £15.0 billion | 11,565 + 8,515 |
| Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport | Lisa Nandy | £2.2 billion | 1,155 |
| Department for Education | Lucy Powell | £97.3 billion | 8,090 |
| Department for Energy Security and Net Zero | Miatta Fahnbulleh | £13.3 billion | 4,830 |
| Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs | Dame Angela Eagle | £7.3 billion | 13,315 |
| Department for Transport | Heidi Alexander | £29.0 billion | 16,610 |
| Department for Work and Pensions | Pat McFadden | £14.8 billion | 96,930 |
| Department of Health and Social Care | Yvette Cooper | £217.4 billion | 10,705 |
| Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office | Ed Miliband | £10.9 billion | 8,890 |
| HM Revenue & Customs (non-ministerial department) | – | £6.7 billion | 75,500 |
| HM Treasury | John Healey | £1.2 billion | 2,765 |
| Home Office | Shabana Mahmood | £19.6 billion | 51,470 |
| Ministry of Defence | Wes Streeting | £62.0 billion | 56,915 |
| Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government | Angela Rayner | £13.8 billion + £13.0 billion | 4,915 |
| Ministry of Justice | Alex Norris | £14.1 billion | 97,505 |
| Northern Ireland Office | Chris Bryant | – | 185 |
| Office of the Advocate General for Scotland | – | – | – |
| Office of the Leader of the House of Commons | Sir Alan Campbell | – | – |
| Office of the Leader of the House of Lords | Baroness Smith of Basildon | – | – |
| Scotland Office | Mr Douglas Alexander | – | 140 |
| UK Export Finance | – | – | 590 |
| Wales Office | Stephen Kinnock | – | 45 |
DEL: departmental expenditure limits, the budgets HM Treasury sets for each department, given here in cash terms. Where a department's figures appear in two PESA groups or two Civil Service Statistics departments, both are shown. "–" means the source has no separate figure for that department.
What the figures cover
Spending comes from HM Treasury's Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2026, Chapter 1 tables 1.3, 1.5, 1.6, 1.9, 1.10 and 1.11, by departmental group (£ million in the source). Departmental expenditure limits (DEL) are the budgets HM Treasury sets for each department: resource DEL covers day-to-day spending and capital DEL investment. Total managed expenditure adds spending outside those limits (annually managed expenditure, such as benefits). Real-terms figures are in 2025-26 prices using GDP deflators, as PESA gives them. Years marked "plans" are budgets for future years.
Staff numbers come from the Cabinet Office's Civil Service Statistics 2026 (tables 12A, 20, 25 and 26, at 31 March 2026) and 2025 (tables 12A and 20). The Cabinet Office rounds figures to the nearest 5 and suppresses small numbers. The National Audit Office reports listed on each page are the most recent the NAO tags with that department.
Budgets and OBR forecasts since 2010
Sources
- HM Treasury: Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2026, Chapter 1 tables · file read 15 October 2026 · SHA-256
0e88d4904e74… - Cabinet Office: Civil Service Statistics 2026, statistical tables · file read 15 October 2026 · SHA-256
d10012973a8f… - Cabinet Office: Civil Service Statistics 2025, statistical tables · file read 15 October 2026 · SHA-256
a72891098003… - UK Parliament Members API: government posts · file read 15 October 2026 · SHA-256
b15347608959… - National Audit Office: reports by department · file read 15 October 2026 · SHA-256
9cb65415b7b3…