Written questions by Wilson.

What information her Department holds on the potential impact of the covid pandemic on levels of teacher (a) recruitment and (b) retention between 2020 and 2024.

Information on the school workforce is published in the ‘School Workforce in England’ statistical publication which is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.The pandemic period affects figures relating to the data between 2019 and 2021.In the state school sector, there were 45,381 new entrants in 2019/20 compared to 47,230 in 2018/19. This reduced to 41,796 in 2020/21. The numbers have risen again as reflected in the most recent census, where there were 44,002 new entrants in 2023/24.Retention increased during the COVID-19 pandemic which we expect is due to changing career plans for individuals. In 2019/20, 41,193 teachers left the profession compared to 43,134 in 2018/19, and this dropped to 32,227 in 2020/21. In the most recent census, 43,522 teachers left the profession, whilst almost 9 in 10 (88.7%) teachers who qualified in 2022 are still teaching one year after qualification, almost three-quarters (74.1%) of teachers who qualified three years ago are still teaching and over two-thirds (67.5%) of teachers who qualified five years ago are still teaching.

What assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the Federation of Master Builders report entitled Licence to build: A pathway to licensing UK construction, published on 2 July 2018.

The Government regularly reviews how standards of consumer protection within the construction sector could be improved. This includes discussions with industry stakeholders, such as the Federation of Master Builders, and with Members of Parliament on a licensing scheme to protect consumers.There are advantages and disadvantages to introducing a licencing scheme in the domestic construction market. The advantages may include higher standards of competence and more effective consumer redress. Whilst the disadvantages may include the cost, complexity and additional administrative burden. Any action that the Government takes on licensing to protect customers and standards needs to be robust, proportionate and evidence based.

How many primary school music teachers left the teaching profession in the period between (a) 2010 and 2015, (b) 2015 and 2020 and (c) 2020 and 2024.

Recruiting and retaining more teachers is critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child, as the in-school factor that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcome is high-quality teaching. This government has inherited a system with critical shortages of teachers, with numbers not keeping pace with demographic changes.​Information on subjects taught is not collected from primary schools. Since the department does not collect the curriculum data for primary teachers, we cannot identify the primary music teachers to calculate a leaver statistic.​Based on the school workforce census data, the numbers of secondary school music teachers who left the teaching profession during the specified periods are as follows:​ In the 2010/11 to 2014/15 academic years,1,968 secondary school music teachers left the teaching profession.​ In the 2015/16 to 2019/20 academic years, 1,833 secondary school music teachers left the teaching profession.​ In the 2020/21 to 2022/23 academic years,1,068 secondary school music teachers left the teaching profession.​Information on the number of teachers leaving service for the 2023/24 academic year will be published in June 2025.Information on the school workforce is published in the ‘School workforce in England’ statistical publication, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.This includes the number and rate of teacher vacancies in each school, local authority, region and nationally. Figures for primary and secondary schools for the 2019/20 to 2023/24 academic years, which is the latest information available, is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/8a3eb31d-c466-4007-0220-08dd45ba797d.Information on teacher vacancies for the 2024/25 academic year will be published in June 2025.This is why the government has set out the ambition to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.The department has made good early progress towards this key pledge by ensuring teaching is once again an attractive and respected profession, which is key to ensuring teachers receive the pay they deserve. That is why we have accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools for 2024/25. Alongside teacher pay, we have made £233 million available from the 2025/26 recruitment cycle to support teacher trainees, with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in shortage subjects. The department has also expanded its schoolteacher recruitment campaign, ‘Every Lesson Shapes a Life’, and the further education teacher recruitment campaign, ‘Share your Skills’.In addition to recruiting expert teachers, we want existing teachers to stay and thrive in the profession, and new teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing in the first five years of their careers will now receive a targeted retention incentive of up to £6,000 after-tax if working in disadvantaged schools. There are six schools in Mid Cheshire that are eligible for targeted retention incentives.To further support retention, we have made available workload and wellbeing resources that were developed with school leaders, through our new Improving Workload and Wellbeing online service. We are also continuing to promote the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which currently has nearly 4,000 school and college signatories.The department is also funding mental health and wellbeing support for school and college leaders. This includes professional supervision and counselling for those who need it. More than 2,000 leaders have benefitted from the support so far. Support continues to be available and can be accessed by visiting Education Support’s website.The department is also committed to supporting schools to implement flexible working practices including taking planning, preparation and assessment time remotely.The department has established Teaching School Hubs across the country, which provide approved high-quality professional development to teachers at all stages of their careers. They play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training, the early career framework, national professional qualifications and appropriate body services.

How many teacher vacancies were recorded by primary schools in (a) 2019, (b) 2020, (c) 2021, (d) 2022, (e) 2023 and (f) 2024.

Recruiting and retaining more teachers is critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child, as the in-school factor that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcome is high-quality teaching. This government has inherited a system with critical shortages of teachers, with numbers not keeping pace with demographic changes.​Information on subjects taught is not collected from primary schools. Since the department does not collect the curriculum data for primary teachers, we cannot identify the primary music teachers to calculate a leaver statistic.​Based on the school workforce census data, the numbers of secondary school music teachers who left the teaching profession during the specified periods are as follows:​ In the 2010/11 to 2014/15 academic years,1,968 secondary school music teachers left the teaching profession.​ In the 2015/16 to 2019/20 academic years, 1,833 secondary school music teachers left the teaching profession.​ In the 2020/21 to 2022/23 academic years,1,068 secondary school music teachers left the teaching profession.​Information on the number of teachers leaving service for the 2023/24 academic year will be published in June 2025.Information on the school workforce is published in the ‘School workforce in England’ statistical publication, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.This includes the number and rate of teacher vacancies in each school, local authority, region and nationally. Figures for primary and secondary schools for the 2019/20 to 2023/24 academic years, which is the latest information available, is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/8a3eb31d-c466-4007-0220-08dd45ba797d.Information on teacher vacancies for the 2024/25 academic year will be published in June 2025.This is why the government has set out the ambition to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.The department has made good early progress towards this key pledge by ensuring teaching is once again an attractive and respected profession, which is key to ensuring teachers receive the pay they deserve. That is why we have accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools for 2024/25. Alongside teacher pay, we have made £233 million available from the 2025/26 recruitment cycle to support teacher trainees, with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in shortage subjects. The department has also expanded its schoolteacher recruitment campaign, ‘Every Lesson Shapes a Life’, and the further education teacher recruitment campaign, ‘Share your Skills’.In addition to recruiting expert teachers, we want existing teachers to stay and thrive in the profession, and new teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing in the first five years of their careers will now receive a targeted retention incentive of up to £6,000 after-tax if working in disadvantaged schools. There are six schools in Mid Cheshire that are eligible for targeted retention incentives.To further support retention, we have made available workload and wellbeing resources that were developed with school leaders, through our new Improving Workload and Wellbeing online service. We are also continuing to promote the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which currently has nearly 4,000 school and college signatories.The department is also funding mental health and wellbeing support for school and college leaders. This includes professional supervision and counselling for those who need it. More than 2,000 leaders have benefitted from the support so far. Support continues to be available and can be accessed by visiting Education Support’s website.The department is also committed to supporting schools to implement flexible working practices including taking planning, preparation and assessment time remotely.The department has established Teaching School Hubs across the country, which provide approved high-quality professional development to teachers at all stages of their careers. They play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training, the early career framework, national professional qualifications and appropriate body services.

What steps she is taking to implement a staff retention strategy in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools.

The within school factor that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcome is high quality teaching. Recruiting and retaining more qualified, expert teachers is therefore critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child.​This government has inherited a system with critical shortages of teachers, with numbers not keeping pace with demographic changes. That is why the government has set out the ambition to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.​​​The department has made good early progress towards this key pledge. We accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools for 2024/25. Alongside teacher pay, we have made £233 million available for the 2025/26 recruitment cycle, which is an increase of £37 million from the 2024/25 cycle, to support teacher trainees with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in some shortage subjects. The department has also expanded its schoolteacher recruitment campaign, ‘Every Lesson Shapes a Life’ and the further education teacher recruitment campaign, ‘Share your Skills’.​A successful recruitment strategy starts with a strong retention strategy, and new teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing in the first five years of their careers will now receive a targeted retention incentive of up to £6,000 after-tax if working in disadvantaged schools. There are four schools in the Twickenham constituency where teachers are eligible for targeted retention incentives.We want to ensure teaching is an attractive profession to a wide range of people, including parents. This is why the department is enabling schools to offer greater flexible working, such as allowing planning, preparation, and assessment to be undertaken from home, as well as making key resources to support wellbeing, developed with school leaders, available to teachers.The department is also funding bespoke support provided by flexible working ambassador schools and multi-academy trusts, ensuring schools are capturing the benefits of flexible working whilst protecting pupils’ face-to-face teacher time. Charles Dickens Primary School is the flexible working ambassador school providing local, tailored peer support for Twickenham schools.The department has established Teaching School Hubs across the country, which play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training and development. Wandle Teaching School Hub supports teacher training and development across Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Richmond upon Thames and Wandsworth.No notices of reduced or ended funding have been issued regarding teacher recruitment or retention schemes since 30 October 2024.

What steps her Department is taking to help increase the retention of teachers when they become parents.

The within school factor that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcome is high quality teaching. Recruiting and retaining more qualified, expert teachers is therefore critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child.​This government has inherited a system with critical shortages of teachers, with numbers not keeping pace with demographic changes. That is why the government has set out the ambition to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.​​​The department has made good early progress towards this key pledge. We accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools for 2024/25. Alongside teacher pay, we have made £233 million available for the 2025/26 recruitment cycle, which is an increase of £37 million from the 2024/25 cycle, to support teacher trainees with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in some shortage subjects. The department has also expanded its schoolteacher recruitment campaign, ‘Every Lesson Shapes a Life’ and the further education teacher recruitment campaign, ‘Share your Skills’.​A successful recruitment strategy starts with a strong retention strategy, and new teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing in the first five years of their careers will now receive a targeted retention incentive of up to £6,000 after-tax if working in disadvantaged schools. There are four schools in the Twickenham constituency where teachers are eligible for targeted retention incentives.We want to ensure teaching is an attractive profession to a wide range of people, including parents. This is why the department is enabling schools to offer greater flexible working, such as allowing planning, preparation, and assessment to be undertaken from home, as well as making key resources to support wellbeing, developed with school leaders, available to teachers.The department is also funding bespoke support provided by flexible working ambassador schools and multi-academy trusts, ensuring schools are capturing the benefits of flexible working whilst protecting pupils’ face-to-face teacher time. Charles Dickens Primary School is the flexible working ambassador school providing local, tailored peer support for Twickenham schools.The department has established Teaching School Hubs across the country, which play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training and development. Wandle Teaching School Hub supports teacher training and development across Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Richmond upon Thames and Wandsworth.No notices of reduced or ended funding have been issued regarding teacher recruitment or retention schemes since 30 October 2024.

Which teacher recruitment and retention schemes that have received notice that funding will be (a) reduced and (b) ended since 30 October 2024.

The within school factor that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcome is high quality teaching. Recruiting and retaining more qualified, expert teachers is therefore critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child.​This government has inherited a system with critical shortages of teachers, with numbers not keeping pace with demographic changes. That is why the government has set out the ambition to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.​​​The department has made good early progress towards this key pledge. We accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools for 2024/25. Alongside teacher pay, we have made £233 million available for the 2025/26 recruitment cycle, which is an increase of £37 million from the 2024/25 cycle, to support teacher trainees with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in some shortage subjects. The department has also expanded its schoolteacher recruitment campaign, ‘Every Lesson Shapes a Life’ and the further education teacher recruitment campaign, ‘Share your Skills’.​A successful recruitment strategy starts with a strong retention strategy, and new teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing in the first five years of their careers will now receive a targeted retention incentive of up to £6,000 after-tax if working in disadvantaged schools. There are four schools in the Twickenham constituency where teachers are eligible for targeted retention incentives.We want to ensure teaching is an attractive profession to a wide range of people, including parents. This is why the department is enabling schools to offer greater flexible working, such as allowing planning, preparation, and assessment to be undertaken from home, as well as making key resources to support wellbeing, developed with school leaders, available to teachers.The department is also funding bespoke support provided by flexible working ambassador schools and multi-academy trusts, ensuring schools are capturing the benefits of flexible working whilst protecting pupils’ face-to-face teacher time. Charles Dickens Primary School is the flexible working ambassador school providing local, tailored peer support for Twickenham schools.The department has established Teaching School Hubs across the country, which play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training and development. Wandle Teaching School Hub supports teacher training and development across Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Richmond upon Thames and Wandsworth.No notices of reduced or ended funding have been issued regarding teacher recruitment or retention schemes since 30 October 2024.

Whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of creating an ombudsman for home owner property extensions.

The Government continues to consider ways in which consumers can be supported in accessing redress and regularly reviews how standards of consumer protection within the construction sector could be improved.The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 contains measures to improve Alternative Dispute Resolution in consumer markets by raising standards of consistency and quality, and encouraging business take up.The Government-funded Citizens Advice consumer service offers free advice to consumers on their rights and how to take complaints forward. A list of Alternative Dispute Resolution bodies and their related sector is available on the Chartered Trading Standards Institute website.

If she will make an estimate of the proportion of farmland that will be used to produce alternative aviation fuels in (a) 2030, (b) 2040 and (c) 2050.

The Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) mandate introduced in January 2025 sets targets for the future supply of low carbon alternatives to fossil fuels used in aviation. The scheme only supports SAF made from sustainable wastes or residues (such as used cooking oil or forestry residues), recycled carbon fuels (e.g. unrecyclable plastics), or be power to liquid fuels made using low carbon (renewable or nuclear) electricity. Given these feedstocks do not require land there is no impact on farmland.

How many secondary school music teachers left the teaching profession in the period between (a) 2010 and 2015, (b) 2015 and 2020 and (c) 2020 and 2024.

Recruiting and retaining more teachers is critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child, as the in-school factor that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcome is high-quality teaching. This government has inherited a system with critical shortages of teachers, with numbers not keeping pace with demographic changes.​Information on subjects taught is not collected from primary schools. Since the department does not collect the curriculum data for primary teachers, we cannot identify the primary music teachers to calculate a leaver statistic.​Based on the school workforce census data, the numbers of secondary school music teachers who left the teaching profession during the specified periods are as follows:​ In the 2010/11 to 2014/15 academic years,1,968 secondary school music teachers left the teaching profession.​ In the 2015/16 to 2019/20 academic years, 1,833 secondary school music teachers left the teaching profession.​ In the 2020/21 to 2022/23 academic years,1,068 secondary school music teachers left the teaching profession.​Information on the number of teachers leaving service for the 2023/24 academic year will be published in June 2025.Information on the school workforce is published in the ‘School workforce in England’ statistical publication, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.This includes the number and rate of teacher vacancies in each school, local authority, region and nationally. Figures for primary and secondary schools for the 2019/20 to 2023/24 academic years, which is the latest information available, is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/8a3eb31d-c466-4007-0220-08dd45ba797d.Information on teacher vacancies for the 2024/25 academic year will be published in June 2025.This is why the government has set out the ambition to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.The department has made good early progress towards this key pledge by ensuring teaching is once again an attractive and respected profession, which is key to ensuring teachers receive the pay they deserve. That is why we have accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools for 2024/25. Alongside teacher pay, we have made £233 million available from the 2025/26 recruitment cycle to support teacher trainees, with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in shortage subjects. The department has also expanded its schoolteacher recruitment campaign, ‘Every Lesson Shapes a Life’, and the further education teacher recruitment campaign, ‘Share your Skills’.In addition to recruiting expert teachers, we want existing teachers to stay and thrive in the profession, and new teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing in the first five years of their careers will now receive a targeted retention incentive of up to £6,000 after-tax if working in disadvantaged schools. There are six schools in Mid Cheshire that are eligible for targeted retention incentives.To further support retention, we have made available workload and wellbeing resources that were developed with school leaders, through our new Improving Workload and Wellbeing online service. We are also continuing to promote the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which currently has nearly 4,000 school and college signatories.The department is also funding mental health and wellbeing support for school and college leaders. This includes professional supervision and counselling for those who need it. More than 2,000 leaders have benefitted from the support so far. Support continues to be available and can be accessed by visiting Education Support’s website.The department is also committed to supporting schools to implement flexible working practices including taking planning, preparation and assessment time remotely.The department has established Teaching School Hubs across the country, which provide approved high-quality professional development to teachers at all stages of their careers. They play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training, the early career framework, national professional qualifications and appropriate body services.

Whether he has met with the Licence UK Construction Task Force set up by the Federation of Master Builders.

The Government regularly reviews how standards of consumer protection within the construction sector could be improved. This includes discussions with industry stakeholders, such as the Federation of Master Builders, and with Members of Parliament on a licensing scheme to protect consumers.There are advantages and disadvantages to introducing a licencing scheme in the domestic construction market. The advantages may include higher standards of competence and more effective consumer redress. Whilst the disadvantages may include the cost, complexity and additional administrative burden. Any action that the Government takes on licensing to protect customers and standards needs to be robust, proportionate and evidence based.

If she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of Education Support's report entitled Teacher Wellbeing Index 2024, published in November 2024.

Education Support’s Teacher Wellbeing Index provides an insight into the mental health and wellbeing of teachers and education staff working in the UK.Ensuring our education workforce are supported is critical to retaining teachers our children need and to deliver high-quality teaching for every child. The department is working in partnership with the sector and mental health experts to improve staff mental health and wellbeing to boost retention. Measures to do so include:Continued promotion of the education staff wellbeing charter, which sets out shared commitments to protect and promote the wellbeing of staff in schools and colleges, more than 4,000 schools and colleges have adopted the charter. The charter can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter.Funded mental health and wellbeing support for school and college leaders, which includes professional supervision and counselling. With more than 2,500 leaders have benefitted from the support so far. More information can be accessed at: https://www.educationsupport.org.uk/get-help/help-for-your-staff/wellbeing-services/professional-supervision/.Making a range of resources available to help schools prioritise staff wellbeing. For example, the department’s ‘Improve workload and wellbeing for school staff’ service, which was developed alongside school leaders, provides tools to support schools to identify opportunities to cut excessive workload and improve staff wellbeing; and guidance to support school leaders and staff to help manage behaviour in schools.The department knows there are further changes needed to make to ensure the system is most effective for children, schools and staff, and to reset the relationship with the sector.

What estimate her Department has made of the average price of school uniform in (a) primary schools and (b) secondary schools, broken down by regions of England.

The department recently published its latest research on the cost of school uniform, surveying parents and carers of children aged 4 to 16 attending state-funded schools in England. The research report assessed the relative changes to the cost of school uniform since the department’s previous report in 2015. This report is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cost-of-school-uniforms-survey-2023.The research found that the average total expenditure on school uniform and physical education (PE) kit, based on the items required in 2023, was £381.92. There were higher levels of expenditure for children in secondary schools, at £442.25, than in primary schools, at £343.28, and within both phases for girls (secondary: £454.31; primary: £357.28) compared to boys (secondary: £430.40; primary: £330.78).The data was sampled to be representative of the population at primary and secondary level. The sample size was not large enough to make robust comparisons at a regional level.Too many families still tell us that the cost of school uniform remains a financial burden. ​This is why the department has introduced legislation to limit the number of branded items of uniform and PE kit that schools can require to bring down costs for parents and remove barriers from children accessing sport and other school activities. This will give parents more choice in where to purchase uniform and allow them greater flexibility to make the spending decisions that suit their circumstances.

How many teacher vacancies were recorded by secondary schools in (a) 2019, (b) 2020, (c) 2021, (d) 2022, (e) 2023 and (f) 2024.

Recruiting and retaining more teachers is critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child, as the in-school factor that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcome is high-quality teaching. This government has inherited a system with critical shortages of teachers, with numbers not keeping pace with demographic changes.​Information on subjects taught is not collected from primary schools. Since the department does not collect the curriculum data for primary teachers, we cannot identify the primary music teachers to calculate a leaver statistic.​Based on the school workforce census data, the numbers of secondary school music teachers who left the teaching profession during the specified periods are as follows:​ In the 2010/11 to 2014/15 academic years,1,968 secondary school music teachers left the teaching profession.​ In the 2015/16 to 2019/20 academic years, 1,833 secondary school music teachers left the teaching profession.​ In the 2020/21 to 2022/23 academic years,1,068 secondary school music teachers left the teaching profession.​Information on the number of teachers leaving service for the 2023/24 academic year will be published in June 2025.Information on the school workforce is published in the ‘School workforce in England’ statistical publication, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.This includes the number and rate of teacher vacancies in each school, local authority, region and nationally. Figures for primary and secondary schools for the 2019/20 to 2023/24 academic years, which is the latest information available, is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/8a3eb31d-c466-4007-0220-08dd45ba797d.Information on teacher vacancies for the 2024/25 academic year will be published in June 2025.This is why the government has set out the ambition to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.The department has made good early progress towards this key pledge by ensuring teaching is once again an attractive and respected profession, which is key to ensuring teachers receive the pay they deserve. That is why we have accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools for 2024/25. Alongside teacher pay, we have made £233 million available from the 2025/26 recruitment cycle to support teacher trainees, with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in shortage subjects. The department has also expanded its schoolteacher recruitment campaign, ‘Every Lesson Shapes a Life’, and the further education teacher recruitment campaign, ‘Share your Skills’.In addition to recruiting expert teachers, we want existing teachers to stay and thrive in the profession, and new teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing in the first five years of their careers will now receive a targeted retention incentive of up to £6,000 after-tax if working in disadvantaged schools. There are six schools in Mid Cheshire that are eligible for targeted retention incentives.To further support retention, we have made available workload and wellbeing resources that were developed with school leaders, through our new Improving Workload and Wellbeing online service. We are also continuing to promote the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which currently has nearly 4,000 school and college signatories.The department is also funding mental health and wellbeing support for school and college leaders. This includes professional supervision and counselling for those who need it. More than 2,000 leaders have benefitted from the support so far. Support continues to be available and can be accessed by visiting Education Support’s website.The department is also committed to supporting schools to implement flexible working practices including taking planning, preparation and assessment time remotely.The department has established Teaching School Hubs across the country, which provide approved high-quality professional development to teachers at all stages of their careers. They play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training, the early career framework, national professional qualifications and appropriate body services.

If he will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring builders to (a) have relevant qualifications and (b) demonstrate a certain competence level to undertake specific work.

The Building Safety Act requires that all those undertaking work in the built environment must be competent and have the right skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours.The Government is working with the construction industry to support the development and implementation of competence frameworks for built environment occupations that identify the core skills, qualifications and competence levels needed to undertake work. Engagement with DfE, Skills England and Standard Setting Bodies is a key part of developing the frameworks to align with and improve existing qualification routes to deliver the competence levels required.

How many e-bike riders were held responsible in an accident involving an e-bike in each of the last five years.

The information requested is not held by the Department.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of negotiating a reciprocal agreement with his Spanish counterpart to allow British citizens with properties in Spain to spend up to six months in Spain each year.

The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement provides for visa-free travel for short-term visits for each other's nationals. British citizens can travel visa-free and stay for up to 90 days in a rolling 180-day period, in accordance with the Schengen Borders Code. This is the standard length of stay that the EU offers to third countries travelling visa-free. Whilst the UK government remains supportive of any Member State changes to their domestic visa system that benefits UK Nationals living in and traveling to EU Member States, it is for Member State governments to decide the rules.

What assessment she has made of the potential merits of requiring e-bike owners to (a) have a driving license, (b) have vehicle insurance, (c) pay road tax and (d) take an annual MOT.

The Government has no plans to require e-cycle owners to do any of these things, provided that their e-cycles comply in full with the requirements of the Electrically Assisted Pedal Cycle Regulations. If their e-cycles do not comply with these requirements, they are in effect e-mopeds and must be registered, taxed and insured, with riders also required to have a valid driving licence and wear a motorcycle helmet that meets British safety standards. A national licensing scheme for people who ride e-cycles would be required to underpin all of the above. This would be expensive to design and administer, and the costs would be likely to outweigh the possible benefits. Requirements of this sort would also be likely to put people off cycling, with negative health and other impacts.

If she will publish the (a) schedule for e-scooter trials and (b) data obtained from those trials.

There are currently 17 e-scooter trials running in England and they are currently due to run until May 2026. Guidance for the trials, including the requirements for users, operators and local authorities are published on gov.uk.Published findings from the first national evaluation of the e-scooter trials included trip data and e-scooter deployment numbers (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-evaluation-of-e-scooter-trials-report).A second evaluation of the e-scooter trials is due to start in Spring 2025. The evaluation will gather new evidence and build on findings from the first evaluation including: the journeys e-scooters are replacing; how they integrate with public transport; their safety for users and for others; and the accessibility impacts of e-scooters.The findings from this evaluation, including trip data, will be published once the second evaluation has concluded.

With reference to Fairness Foundation and King's College's report Identifying and mitigating the risks of wealth inequality in the UK, published on 26 January 2025, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of the findings of that report.

While income and wealth are not always directly correlated, distributional analysis shows that Government decisions at Autumn Budget 2024 and Spending Review 2025, Phase 1 are progressive and benefit households in the lowest income deciles the most, on average as a percentage of income in 2025-26. The Government is committed to making sure the wealthiest in our society pay their fair share of tax. That is why the Chancellor announced a series of reforms at Autumn Budget 2024 to help fix the public finances in as fair a way as possible. The increases in tax are concentrated on the highest income households. Overall, on average, all but the richest 10% of households will benefit from policy decisions in 2025-26.