Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of profit of teacher supply agencies from (a) schools and (b) supply teachers in each of the last five years.

The Department does not hold information on the profit levels of teacher supply agencies. In 2015/16 academic year (academies) and 2015-16 financial year (maintained schools), schools spent a total of £835 million on agency supply staff. The Department is working with Crown Commercial Service to develop a commercial framework for agency supply teachers to support schools with ensuring value for money when using agency staff. The framework will bring transparency to agency margins and require agencies to adhere to standard levels of practice, including on the use of temp-to-perm fees. The framework is expected to be available for schools to use from September 2018.