The number of permanent civil servants has increased by 4.5 per cent in the past year.

Cabinet Office figures released on Thursday revealed that there are 10,740 more staff in Whitehall than in October last year.

David Davis, shadow deputy prime minister, said: "This is typical of the government's approach. With a million people still on the waiting list, gun crime doubling and one in five trains running late, the government choose to invest in over 20,000 extra bureaucrats rather than delivering the money to front line public services.

"Their centralising and complex policies continue to be the reason why Labour have taxed and spent and failed.

"The government look to have lost control of civil service numbers, as having mentioned the departments involved, they are unable to state the actual numbers by department."

Forum Response: FDA

Jonathan Baume, general secretary of the FDA, on the civil service numbers released yesterday.

"Civil service numbers always fluctuate under any government, reflecting both seasonal workloads, changes in political priorities and demand-led functions.

"This is clearly the case with these figures, where extra civil service numbers largely reflect increases in the prison population and extra staffrequired by the Crown Prosecution Service.

"The increases in these two areas are the consequence of increased prosecutions and the need to speed up the judicial process.

"The government is determined to tacke the backlog in asylum cases, as all of the political parties have urged, which is the reason for the increase in Immigration Service staffing.

"These are all key public services that the public rely upon."