A total of 112 extra public service posts were created or filled over the last 12 months.

And while the police, fire and health service have fewer staff, the number of civil servants has gone up.

LibVan Onchan MHK Julie Edge questioned why the number of people employed by government grew from 8,234 to 8,328 (7,319 to 7,424 full-time equivalent) between July 2016 and the end of June this year.

In a Tynwald question she asked how those figures were broken down by department, offices or board, and by grade and salary.

Policy and Reform Minister Chris Thomas MHK, in a written reply, explained that the figures represented a snapshot of people in post and will vary from month to month based on recruitment, the number leaving posts and the number of vacancies.

He said numbers will have increased in some departments, employment groups and grades, and decreased in others.

The Department of Education and Children and Cabinet Office saw the biggest increases over the year with 65 and 24.65 extra full-time equivalent staff respectively.

The biggest drops in staff numbers were in Economic Development (down 13.09 FTE) and Treasury (down 14.65 FTE).

Police and fire, health and social care services and the Post Office all saw a fall in staff numbers (down six, three and five FTE respectively) while the civil service and education saw the biggest increases (up 36.7 and 23.1 FTE).

But Mr Thomas listed 112 full-time equivalent posts that had been created over the last 12 months.

He said a number of activities had been in-sourced into government.

They include the conversion of contracts within Government Technology Services into employment positions (four FTE) at a much lower cost, Age Concern roles brought into the Department of Health and Social Care (13 FTE) and the Noble’s Hospital shop (four FTE).

A total of 21 FTE seasonal rail positions had been converted into permanent positions on annualised hours contracts.

The Financial Intelligence Unit has been set up creating eight FTE posts.

Six FTE additional posts established in the Financial Services Authority for business change and enforcement.

In the DEFA, planning and building control has recruited an additional six FTE since June 2016 to restore normal staffing levels having been under-staffed pending a review.

There were 14 full-time equivalent extra mainly short-term roles, established in support of the digital strategy plus four FTE further roles established in government technology services (three trainees and one in support of cyber security).

Nine FTE additional posts were filled in the Department of Education and Children for youth and sports development roles.

And 16 FTE additional teachers and lecturers’ posts were filled and seven FTE additional education support staff.

Mr Thomas pointed out that some of the variations in staff numbers between 2016 and 2017 can be attributed to the transfers of functions between departments.

For example, 42 FTE posts employed within secondary schools catering had transferred into the Department of Education and Children from the Department of Health and Social Care.