The department’s total pay bill for staff – including consultants, contractors and agency workers - increased from £25.9m in April 2018 to £34.7m in April 2019, figures from the Cabinet Office have shown.
This is due, in part, to a rise in the total number of staff working at the department, which went up by 21.3% over the year, from 5,304 to 6,435.
Recruitment in central government departments has increased since the 2016 referendum result and the Cabinet Office had just 2,323 staff as of May 2016. Staff numbers have therefore shot up by 177% compared to pre-referendum levels.
Individuals in the department have also seen their workload increase with overtime costs increasing by 7.9% from £127,000 to £137,000.
It was a similar story at the Civil Service Commission, an executive non-departmental body that sits under the Cabinet Office and regulates recruitment into the civil service.
Overtime costs at the CSC increased by 8.4% over the same period, PF analysis of the government data has revealed.
The Cabinet Office also saw an explosion in the amount of agency staff going from 3 to 40 individuals over the same time period.
Civil service recruitment has been increasing in recent years beginning in November 2017 when then Brexit secretary David Davis announced 3,000 new staff focused on Brexit.
According to analysis by the Institute for Government think-tank the Cabinet Office is one of eight departments that has seen the number of civil servants rise between 2010 and 2019.
Others that have brought in more civil servants are: Department for International Development, Cabinet Office, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Transport, Department for Education, HM Treasury, Home Office and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “The Cabinet Office is working to deliver this government's priorities, including our commitment to leave the EU. To do this, we are equipping ourselves with the right people and skills. At the same time, we continue to make sure that all other departmental priorities are being delivered.”
