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Written Question
Department for Business and Trade: Labour Turnover
Monday 11th September 2023

Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what information their Department holds on the level of staff retention; and what steps they are taking to improve staff retention.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

Civil Service turnover in the Department for International Trade (DIT) was 8.1% in 2022/23.

As part of Machinery of Government changes, DIT has since become The Department of Business and Trade (DBT).

As part of the leavers process for DBT each leaver is sent a link to a survey to gather more information around the reasons the individual is leaving, such as career development or better pay and conditions. This narrative is beneficial to inform future policy decisions.

Examples of current activities to support attraction and retention:

  • DBT offer a broad range of development opportunities including apprenticeships, trade and business specific learning packages, development programmes (including our internally designed and delivered International Trade Development Programme), interchange and secondments.
  • Working within controls, we do as much as possible to ensure that we have an attractive employee pay and benefits package and take steps to deliver annual pay awards at both delegated and SCS grades that align to central guidance. To support employee recognition and engagement, we have a DBT in-year award scheme to provide cash/voucher awards to recognise key achievements.
  • We analyse the department's annual Civil Service People Survey results which have specific questions linked to employee retention and each year create an action plan that responds to feedback from the survey.
  • We are currently working on our People Strategy which will take us to 2028 and one of the objectives within it is retention and engagement.

Written Question
Teachers: Recruitment
Tuesday 21st February 2023

Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to meet annual teacher recruitment targets.

Answered by Nick Gibb

As of the last School Workforce Census (November 2021, published in June 2022), the number of teachers remains high, with over 465,500 full time equivalent teachers working in state funded schools across the country. This is over 24,000 more than in 2010. The Department recognises there is more to do to ensure teaching remains an attractive, high-status profession.

The Department recognises that some subjects remain more challenging to recruit to than others. The Department has announced a £181 million financial incentives package for those starting initial teacher training (ITT) in the 2023/24 academic year. The Department is providing bursaries worth up to £27,000 and scholarships worth up to £29,000 to encourage trainees to apply to train in key secondary subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing.

The Department has expanded the offer to international trainees in physics and languages.

The Department provides a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 for mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who work in disadvantaged schools nationally, including within Education Investment Areas. The eligibility criteria and list of eligible schools is on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/levelling-up-premium-payments-for-teachers.

The Department has recently raised starting salaries outside London by 8.9% to £28,000 and remains committed to the Government’s ambition of delivering £30,000 starting salaries to attract talented people to teaching. The Department has also implemented the School Teachers' Review Body recommendation of a 5% pay uplift for experienced teachers and leaders in 2022/23.

In autumn 2021, the Department launched the ‘apply for teacher training’ digital service. This enables a more streamlined, user friendly application route to attract and train teachers.

The Department is also taking action to attract more people to teaching and enable them to succeed through transforming their training and support. The Department has created an entitlement to at least three years of structured training, support and professional development underpinned by the ITT Core Content Framework and the Early Career Framework. Together, these ensure that new teachers will benefit from at least three years of evidence-based training, across ITT and into their induction.


Written Question
Teachers: Labour Turnover and Recruitment
Tuesday 7th February 2023

Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve teacher recruitment and retention rates in subjects including (a) Physics, (b) Maths, (c) Design and Technology, (d) Chemistry and (e) Computing.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The number of teachers remains high, with over 465,500 Full Time Equivalent teachers working in state funded schools across the country, including more rural parts of England. This is 24,000 more than in 2010.

The Department recognises there is more to do to ensure teaching remains an attractive, high status profession, and to recruit and retain teachers in key subjects. Reforms are aimed not only at increasing teacher recruitment through an attractive pay offer and financial incentives such as bursaries, but also at ensuring teachers stay and succeed in the profession.

The Department is making £181 million available in bursaries and scholarships to attract trainee teachers in high priority subjects for academic year 2023/24. This is a £52 million increase on the current academic year. As graduates in science technology, engineering, and mathematics attract the highest salaries outside teaching, the Department is offering a £27,000 tax-free bursary or a £29,000 tax-free scholarship in chemistry, computing, mathematics, and physics. The Department is also offering a £20,000 tax-free bursary in design and technology.​

The Department also offers a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 annually for mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who work in disadvantaged schools across England, including in rural areas and Education Investment Areas (EIAs). This will support recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in the subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most. ​ ​

To make teaching here even more attractive to the best teachers from around the world, the Department plans to introduce a new relocation premium for overseas nationals coming here to train or teach languages and physics. This will help with visas and other expenses. The Department will also extend bursary and scholarship eligibility to international trainees in physics and languages.

The Department launched its new digital service, ‘Apply for teacher training’, in autumn 2021 to make it easier for people across the country to train to become teachers, particularly in shortage subjects.

In autumn 2022, the Department expanded the ‘Engineers Teach Physics’ initial teacher training programme with a national rollout. This course has been designed to support more engineers and material scientists to train to become physics teachers. The Department is working closely with sector experts, representative bodies and academic institutions such as the Institute of Physics, Engineering UK, University of Birmingham and the Gatsby Institute to ensure that the course reflects best practice and includes the most up to date industry knowledge.

These initiatives all support the work of the Department in creating a world-class teacher development system by transforming the support teachers and school leaders receive at every stage of their career. This begins with initial teacher training through to an Early Careers Framework based induction for early career teachers, and specialist and leadership National Professional Qualifications for more experienced teachers.


Written Question
Teachers: Rural Areas
Tuesday 7th February 2023

Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to tackle teacher shortages in rural areas.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The number of teachers remains high, with over 465,500 Full Time Equivalent teachers working in state funded schools across the country, including more rural parts of England. This is 24,000 more than in 2010.

The Department recognises there is more to do to ensure teaching remains an attractive, high status profession, and to recruit and retain teachers in key subjects. Reforms are aimed not only at increasing teacher recruitment through an attractive pay offer and financial incentives such as bursaries, but also at ensuring teachers stay and succeed in the profession.

The Department is making £181 million available in bursaries and scholarships to attract trainee teachers in high priority subjects for academic year 2023/24. This is a £52 million increase on the current academic year. As graduates in science technology, engineering, and mathematics attract the highest salaries outside teaching, the Department is offering a £27,000 tax-free bursary or a £29,000 tax-free scholarship in chemistry, computing, mathematics, and physics. The Department is also offering a £20,000 tax-free bursary in design and technology.​

The Department also offers a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 annually for mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who work in disadvantaged schools across England, including in rural areas and Education Investment Areas (EIAs). This will support recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in the subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most. ​ ​

To make teaching here even more attractive to the best teachers from around the world, the Department plans to introduce a new relocation premium for overseas nationals coming here to train or teach languages and physics. This will help with visas and other expenses. The Department will also extend bursary and scholarship eligibility to international trainees in physics and languages.

The Department launched its new digital service, ‘Apply for teacher training’, in autumn 2021 to make it easier for people across the country to train to become teachers, particularly in shortage subjects.

In autumn 2022, the Department expanded the ‘Engineers Teach Physics’ initial teacher training programme with a national rollout. This course has been designed to support more engineers and material scientists to train to become physics teachers. The Department is working closely with sector experts, representative bodies and academic institutions such as the Institute of Physics, Engineering UK, University of Birmingham and the Gatsby Institute to ensure that the course reflects best practice and includes the most up to date industry knowledge.

These initiatives all support the work of the Department in creating a world-class teacher development system by transforming the support teachers and school leaders receive at every stage of their career. This begins with initial teacher training through to an Early Careers Framework based induction for early career teachers, and specialist and leadership National Professional Qualifications for more experienced teachers.


Written Question
Teachers: Labour Turnover and Recruitment
Friday 13th January 2023

Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve the recruitment and retention of teachers.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The number of teachers remains high, with over 465,500 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) teachers working in state funded schools across the country. This is 24,000 more than in 2010.

The Department recognises there is more to do to ensure teaching remains an attractive, high status profession, and to recruit and retain teachers in key subjects. Reforms are aimed not only at increasing teacher recruitment through an attractive pay offer and financial incentives such as bursaries, but also at ensuring teachers stay and succeed in the profession.

The Department remains committed to delivering £30,000 starting salaries to attract and retain the best teachers.

The Department is investing £181 million in financial incentives. For those starting initial teacher training (ITT) in the 2023/24 academic year, there are bursaries worth up to £27,000 and scholarships worth up to £29,000 to encourage talented trainees to apply to train in key secondary subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing. The Department has also expanded the offer to international trainees in physics and languages.

The Department also offers a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 annually for mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who work in disadvantaged schools.

The Department launched its new digital service, ‘Apply for teacher training’ in autumn 2021, enabling a more streamlined, user friendly application route, to make it easier for people to train to become teachers.

The Department is also taking action to enable teachers to succeed through transforming their training and support. The Department will deliver 500,000 teacher training and development opportunities by the end of 2024, giving all teachers and school leaders access to quality, evidence based training and professional development at every stage of their career.

To support retention in the first few years of teaching, the Department has rolled out the Early Career Framework (ECF) nationally, providing the foundations for a successful career in teaching. This is backed by over £130 million a year in funding.

The Department’s reforms are aimed not only at increasing teacher recruitment across all areas, but also at ensuring teachers stay and succeed in the profession. The Department has published a range of resources to help address teacher workload and wellbeing, and support all schools to introduce flexible working practices. These resources include the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which the Department is encouraging schools to sign up to as a shared commitment to promote staff wellbeing, and the school workload reduction toolkit, developed alongside head teachers. The Charter is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter, and the toolkit is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-workload-reduction-toolkit.


Written Question
Teachers: Labour Turnover and Recruitment
Thursday 5th January 2023

Asked by: Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve the (1) recruitment, and (2) retention, of teachers.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The number of teachers remains high, with over 465,500 working in state-funded schools across the country at Full Time Equivalent (FTE). This is 24,000 more than in 2010.

The department recognises there is more to do to ensure teaching remains an attractive, high status profession, and to recruit and retain teachers in key subjects and areas. Reforms are aimed at increasing teacher recruitment through an attractive pay offer and financial incentives such as bursaries, as well as at ensuring teachers stay and succeed in the profession.

The department remains committed to delivering starting salaries of £30,000 to attract and retain the best teachers.

The department is investing £181 million in financial incentives. For those starting initial teacher training (ITT) in the 2023/24 academic year, bursaries worth up to £27,000 and scholarships worth up to £29,000 are offered to encourage talented trainees to apply to train in key secondary subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing. This offer has also been expanded to international trainees in physics and languages.

The department offers a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 annually for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers working in disadvantaged schools in the first five years of their careers.

In autumn 2021, the new digital service, ‘Apply for teacher training’ was launched. This provides a more streamlined, user-friendly application route, to make it easier for people to train to become teachers.

The department is also taking action to enable teachers to succeed by transforming their training and support. 500,000 teacher training and development opportunities will be delivered by the end of 2024, giving all teachers and head teachers access to world class, evidence based training and professional development at every stage of their career.

To support retention in the first few years of teaching, the department has rolled out the Early Career Framework (ECF) nationally, providing the foundations for a successful career in teaching, with over £130 million a year in funding.

Additionally, the department has published a range of resources to help address teacher workload and wellbeing, including the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which schools are being encouraged to sign up to as a shared commitment to promote staff wellbeing. The charter can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter. Additionally, the workload reduction toolkit has been developed alongside head teachers and has been published here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-workload-reduction-toolkit. Several other resources have also been published to support schools to implement effective flexible working practices, and these can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/flexible-working-resources-for-teachers-and-schools.


Written Question
Ukraine: Humanitarian Aid
Monday 19th December 2022

Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 17 October to Question 59749 on Ukraine: Humanitarian Aid, what steps his Department has taken on repurposing seized Russian assets to support humanitarian efforts in Ukraine since the Ukraine Recovery Conference .

Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)

The UK Government and its G7 partners have been clear Russia must pay for the damage caused by its illegal war in Ukraine. Together with other Government departments and law enforcement agencies, we are looking at legally robust mechanisms to seize assets to fund reconstruction. We continue to work with Ukraine and international partners to support that reconstruction.


Written Question
Development Aid: Asylum
Tuesday 29th November 2022

Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers have had their accommodation costs paid for through the foreign aid budget for longer than 12 months as of 24 November 2022; and what the total cost of that accommodation was.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

The United Kingdom has a statutory obligation to provide destitute asylum seekers with accommodation and other support whilst their application for asylum is being considered. Our accommodation costs are considered to be commercially confidential, therefore the Home Office does not publish this information.

Provisional and final UK Official Development Assistance (ODA) spend data for 2022 will be published as normal in the Spring and Autumn of 2023 respectively. The latest data available is the final data for 2021 UK ODA spend, which was published November 23rd. The stats for international development are published here: Statistics on International Development: final UK aid spend 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

The Home Office has not used any ODA funds to pay for the accommodation costs of any asylum seekers for longer than 12 months. This is as no costs from after 12 months of an asylum seeker arriving in the UK are deemed ODA eligible.


Written Question
Development Aid: Asylum
Tuesday 29th November 2022

Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much funding has been allocated from the Foreign Aid Budget for the accommodation of asylum seekers and refugees in each of the last 24 months.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

The United Kingdom has a statutory obligation to provide destitute asylum seekers with accommodation and other support whilst their application for asylum is being considered. Our accommodation costs are considered to be commercially confidential, therefore the Home Office does not publish this information.

Provisional and final UK Official Development Assistance (ODA) spend data for 2022 will be published as normal in the Spring and Autumn of 2023 respectively. The latest data available is the final data for 2021 UK ODA spend, which was published November 23rd. The stats for international development are published here: Statistics on International Development: final UK aid spend 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

The Home Office has not used any ODA funds to pay for the accommodation costs of any asylum seekers for longer than 12 months. This is as no costs from after 12 months of an asylum seeker arriving in the UK are deemed ODA eligible.


Written Question
Asylum: Hotels
Tuesday 29th November 2022

Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much has been spent on hotel accommodation for asylum seekers in each of the last 24-months.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

The United Kingdom has a statutory obligation to provide destitute asylum seekers with accommodation and other support whilst their application for asylum is being considered. Our accommodation costs are considered to be commercially confidential, therefore the Home Office does not publish this information.

Provisional and final UK Official Development Assistance (ODA) spend data for 2022 will be published as normal in the Spring and Autumn of 2023 respectively. The latest data available is the final data for 2021 UK ODA spend, which was published November 23rd. The stats for international development are published here: Statistics on International Development: final UK aid spend 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

The Home Office has not used any ODA funds to pay for the accommodation costs of any asylum seekers for longer than 12 months. This is as no costs from after 12 months of an asylum seeker arriving in the UK are deemed ODA eligible.