100,000 Civil Servants In UK To Strike On 1 February - Updated With Affected Departments

12th January 2023

Cabinet Office must address staff pay crisis.

The Public and commercial services Union (PCS) have given notice of a strike by civil servants on 1 February 2023 over pay.

Departments Affected
ACAS
British Museum
Cabinet Office
Charity Commission
Maritime & Coastguard Agency
Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
Natural Resources Wales
Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service
Independent Office for Police Conduct
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)
Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS)
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)
Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS)
Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA)
Audit Wales
Department for Education
Natural England
Competition Service
Gambling Commission
Historic England
Health & Safety Executive (HSE)
Historic Environment Scotland
Home Office
Insolvency Service
HM Land Registry
Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra)
Creative Scotland
National Galleries of Scotland
National Museums of Scotland
National Audit Office
National Lottery Heritage Fund
Department for Transport
National Library of Wales
National Museums Liverpool
Gangmasters & Labour Abuse Authority
Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
Ofgem
Competition & Markets Authority
Office for National Statistics & UKSA
OFWAT
Ofsted
UK Intellectual Property Office
Vehicle Certification Agency
Planning Inspectorate
National Archives
Registers of Scotland
Transport Focus
Sports Grounds Safety Authority
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Equality & Human Rights Commission
Scottish Enterprise
NatureScot
Scottish Government
Serious Fraud Office
Skills Development Scotland
The Council of the RFCAs
Sport England
Scotland's Commission for Children & Young People
RFCA West Midlands
Scottish Courts & Tribunals Service
Legal Aid Agency
UK Research & Innovation (UKRI)
Visit Scotland
Government Legal Department
Parole Board for England & Wales
Animal & Plant Health Agency (APHA)
Wallace Collection
Senedd Cymru (Welsh Parliament)
Scottish Human Rights Commission
Scottish Prison Service
Scottish Parliament
Student Loans Company
Architecture & Design Scotland
Higher Education Funding Council for Wales
National Highways
Westminster Foundation for Democracy
Independent Living Fund Scotland
Rural Payments Agency
Defence, Science & Technology Laboratory
Electoral Commission
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC)
Security Industry Authority
UK Space Agency
Marine Management Organisation
Youth Justice Board
Local Government Boundary Commission for England
Northern Ireland Office
Prisons & Probation Ombudsman
Wales Office
Courts and Tribunals Judiciary
Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority
Children’s Commissioner for England
Food Standards Scotland
Crown Estate Scotland
Risk Management Authority
Local Democracy & Boundary Commission for Wales
UK Debt Management Office
Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS)
Social Security Scotland
Scottish Housing Regulator
Revenue Scotland
Department of International Trade
Bord na Gaidhlig
Forestry Commission England
Scottish Forestry
Leasehold Advisory Service
Forestry and Land Scotland
UKSV (Cabinet Office)
Disclosure and Barring Service
Veterinary Medicines Directorate
Institute for Apprenticeships
Office for Students (OfS)
Transport Scotland
Accountant in Bankruptcy
Disclosure Scotland
Education Scotland
Office for the Scottish Charity Regulator
Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA)
National Records of Scotland
South of Scotland Enterprise
Trade Remedies Authority
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)
Office for Health Improvement & Disparities (OHID).

The PCS national executive committee has agreed to call a one-day strike on 1 February of all members in employers where the turnout passed the 50% threshold required by law for action in our ballot last year.
Members can check if your employer is included in the action by checking the list on the PCS website.

It will be the largest civil service strike for years and signals a significant escalation of industrial action after a month of strikes over pay, pensions, redundancy terms and job security. It coincides with the TUC's 'protect the right to strike' day announced yesterday.

As the cost-of-living crisis worsens, with inflation at nearly 11%, members are saying they've had enough of being treated appallingly. Our campaign is for a 10% pay rise, pensions justice, job security and no cuts in redundancy terms.

We have carried out sustained action in targeted areas which is building pressure on the employer in the Border Force, RPA, DVSA, DVLA, National Highways and DWP.

The action will be coordinated with other unions taking action, as well as the launch by the TUC of a campaign over pay and jobs, which will include events in several UK cities.

If you are not striking on 1 February, please visit picket lines and attend any other campaign activities organised on the day.

A Facebook live event open to all members in the dispute will be held on 25 January. Look out for further details.

Industrial action is a last resort. But so far, the government has refused to discuss our demands. 100,000 PCS members on strike on 1 February will increase the pressure on the government.


The PCS national executive committee has agreed to call a one-day strike on 1 February 2023 of all members in employers where the turnout passed the 50% threshold required by law for action in our ballot last year.

Ahead of our meeting with minister for the Cabinet Office Jeremy Quin, we have made it clear that to resolve our dispute the government must make more funding available for pay now.

PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka wrote to the Tory MP ahead of our meeting with him tomorrow calling on him to also address the other issues that PCS is currently in dispute about:

job protection
redundancy payments
and pension contributions.

In a letter on 5 January, Mr Quin expressed a desire to engage constructively with PCS over discussing next year's pay, but in reply Mark strongly urged him to meet us to resolve the current dispute.

The minister seems to misunderstand how civil service pay operates by setting out in his letter that the Cabinet Office will "be publishing our economic evidence to pay review bodies so that union members and the wider public can see the context within which we need to work."

There is no pay review body for the civil service below the senior civil service.

Mark said: "It is therefore difficult for us to understand how we can respond to an invitation to discuss evidence to a body that does not exist. It is also difficult for us to understand how the government can publish evidence that it is submitting to a non-existent body."

Mark also highlighted how there is no provision within the present Treasury pay remit process for delegated grades for evidence to be submitted to inform the outcome.

"The government is entirely in control of the content of the pay remit guidance. Any evidence therefore that the government wishes to submit as part of this process, it would only be submitting to itself. This appears to us to be a rather bizarre proposition," he wrote.

Each year our union submits a national pay claim but there are no substantive discussions at the national level as to these claims or about the remit itself. If the government is serious about constructively engaging with us, then there needs to be effective national negotiations about pay and the terms of the remit.

Mark concluded his letter by saying we welcome the minister's commitment to setting out a path for constructive engagement and that "we stand ready, as we always have, to enter discussions with you on solutions to the current cost-of-living crisis being endured by workers within the civil service".

12 December 2022
Biggest civil service strike for a generation to begin
PCS members tomorrow (December 13) begin a series of strikes across England, Scotland and Wales.
Driving examiners and people working at the Rural Payments Agency are the first to take action. They will be followed by those working for the National Highways, the Border Force and a number of offices in the Department for Work and Pensions.

In all, 100,000 PCS members working in 214 government departments and other bodies voted for strike action over pay, pensions, jobs and redundancy terms.

PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka said: "This is the start of the most sustained strike action by civil servants for a generation.

"They have been offered just a 2% pay rise at a time when inflation is running at over 10%. They are determined, they are strong and they been left with no other way of expressing their concerns about the cost-of-living crisis than to take strike action."

Tomorrow, some 1,600 PCS members working for the Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) will be joined on strike by almost 100 workers at the Rural Payments Agency (RPA).

The month-long rolling strike programme by DVSA workers runs from tomorrow to 18 December in Scotland and northern England before spreading to North West England, Yorkshire, Humberside and North Wales between 19-24 December, the West Midlands, eastern England and the East Midlands between 28-31 December and 3 January, culminating in London, the South East, South Wales and the South West between 4-11 January.

RPA workers in Workington, Caernarfon and Newcastle are taking action from today to 16 December, and again between 19-23 December, 3-6 and 9-13 January.

Mark said: "For the government's own workforce to be reduced to using foodbanks because they can't afford to buy food or burning candles at home because they can't afford to turn their lights on is nothing short of a scandal.

"Rather than trying to tighten anti-trade union laws, attacking the unions and avoiding responsibility for the mess they’ve caused, the government should address the real issue faced by hundreds of thousands of workers, and put some money on the table to resolve the dispute and, more importantly, help its own workforce survive the winter."