Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on trends in the number of vacancies for science teachers in secondary schools in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) nationally in the last five years; and if she will make a statement.

The information requested is available for England and is published in Table 15 of the statistical first release ‘School Workforce in England, November 2014’, which is available at the following web link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/school-workforce-in-england-november-2014

The information requested is not available for Coventry and West Midlands.

Although the national teacher vacancy rate remains low, we are aware that schools in some parts of the country are finding it more challenging to recruit teachers, particularly as the economy improves. Our recent White Paper, Educational Excellence Everywhere, sets out our plans to ensure that there are good teachers everywhere they are needed. This includes the launch of the National Teaching Service which will, by 2020, place up to 1,500 outstanding teachers and middle leaders in the schools that struggle most to recruit and retain good teachers.

Last year the Prime Minister announced that we would be spending up to £67m on teacher training and development in priority STEM subjects. This includes training an additional 2,500 maths and physics teachers, and improving the subject knowledge of a further 15,000 non-specialist serving teachers in those subjects.