Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Baroness Smith of Malvern on 16 July (HL8638) and 26 August (HL9576), on which date before the speech by the Secretary of State for Education on 3 February it was decided that their commitment to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers would not include primary schools.

As previously set out in responses to written parliamentary questions HL8638 and HL9576, the department is targeting the 6,500 teachers pledge towards mainstream secondary schools and colleges, and special schools.

Regular public statements have been made on this key pledge, including for instance in my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education’s first sector email communication. The pledge is focused on sectors where there is a need for more teachers. Demographic changes throughout this parliament means pupil numbers will increase in secondary schools, and particularly in further education, while there has been significant decrease in the number of pupils in primary schools. There are 60,000 fewer pupils in primary schools compared to last year, and around 172,000 fewer compared to the 2018/19 peak.