Let's do some maths. There are 35,000,000 taxpayers [1], 70,000,000 citizens [2]. Say there are 5,000 people responsible for gov.uk and that each are paid £80k

Let's do some maths. There are 35,000,000 taxpayers [1], 70,000,000 citizens [2]. Say there are 5,000 people responsible for gov.uk and that each are paid £80k/year. Total budget: 5000 * £80k = £400M Cost per taxpayer per year: £400M / 35M = £11.43 Cost per citizen per year: £400M / 70M = £5.71 This source [3] cites projected GDS budget for 2026 as £420M. Previous years have been £273M (2025), and £256M (2024). So the fag packet calculations are not far off. [1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-tax-liabilities-statistics-tax-year-2022-to-2023-to-tax-year-2025-to-2026/summary-statistics https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-tax-liabilit... [2] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/bulletins/annualmidyearpopulationestimates/mid2024 https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populati... [3] https://www.publictechnology.net/2025/07/14/government-and-politics/gds-set-for-big-budget-boost-in-fy26-dsit-accounts-show/ https://www.publictechnology.net/2025/07/14/government-and-p...