There has been a small increase in the total public service headcount over the last three months.

But the increase is largely the result of more police officers, nurses and care workers being recruited.

And there has been a reduction in the number of staff employed by some other government departments.

The figures were released in the second quarterly report into the size and shape of the public service workforce.

It shows the overall full time equivalent for the public service across the core departments stood at 4,407.04, a small increase of 7.15.

Including Manx Care the total for all government departments, boards and offices stood at 7,842.3 at the end of March, representing an increase of 40.04 FTE since the first of the new quarterly reports was published in January.

This was largely driven by a planned increase in frontline roles.

These included 17 trainee police officers and six additional staff recruited to fill vacancies in schools, University College and across the Sports, Recreation and Youth division.

There were, however, six extra employed in Cabinet Office comprising approved new roles including limited term appointments for the Efficiency Programme and Office of Human Resources service improvement programme, and a number of replacement posts.

Manx Care recruited two additional nurses for cardiac and stroke rehabilitation services, 20 residential support workers converting from a casual / bank basis, four social care workers and three support workers.

The arm’s-length healthcare provider’s FTE increased by 32.92 from 2,982.82 to 3,015.74.

Sixteen port security staff were transferred to the Department of Home Affairs from the Department of Infrastructure.

Over the same period the number of people working in the Treasury, the Department for Enterprise, and the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture, also dropped during the quarter.

More than 130 job roles have been reviewed under the new recruitment control framework announced by Chief Minster Alfred Cannan with the aim of scrutinising the need for any further recruitment across the core departments.

Mr Cannan said: ‘I note there has been a small increase in the total public service headcount over the last three months.

‘I am encouraged, however, that this is driven by investment into our critical frontline services to ensure they are adequately staffed.

‘I am also encouraged to see other departments reduce in size.’

The Chief Minister continued: ‘The ebb and flow in the total headcount does not necessarily mean new roles have been created or that the public service has grown in overall size.

‘It is more likely that vacant jobs have been recruited to. Nonetheless, it is imperative we remain vigilant in scrutinising the creation of any new posts and ensuring roles are reviewed when they become vacant and not automatically re-advertised.’

Following the UK’s raid on the island’s VAT share, steps were taken to reduce government headcount, which fell by about 850. Since then numbers have continued to rise.

Jersey’s government last year announced a nine-month recruitment freeze for civil service posts earning £66,000 and above.