Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to (a) reinstate or (b) increase teaching bursaries for subjects where training bursaries were reduced or suspended in 2021.

For initial teacher training (ITT) courses starting in the 2022/23 academic year, the department is continuing to offer a £24,000 tax-free bursary or prestigious scholarships worth £26,000 tax-free in chemistry, computing, mathematics and physics.

In addition, the department has reinstated £15,000 tax-free bursaries for geography and design and technology that we last offered in 2020/21. We have also increased the bursary for languages from £10,000 to £15,000, and the biology bursary from £7,000 to £10,000, compared to those offered in 2021/22.

The department reviews bursaries each year to take account of a number of factors including historic recruitment, forecast economic conditions, and teacher supply need in each subject. Being able to change bursary amounts gives us the flexibility to respond to the need to attract new teachers, and means we are spending money where it is needed most.

Therefore, the department will review the need for bursaries across all subjects again, including the value of current bursaries, before announcing the offer for academic year 2023/24 this autumn.