Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on the use of supply teachers in schools.

The information requested is not held centrally.

The Department collects information on teacher numbers from the School Workforce Census but does not hold live information on the use of supply teachers. The Census data can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-school-workforce.

As schools begin to reopen for all pupils from the beginning of the autumn term, we anticipate the demand for supply teachers to return to normal and supply teachers will continue to make a vital contribution in our schools.