Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent estimate she has made of the (a) number of vacancies and (b) level of skill shortages in (i) bricklaying, (ii) joinery, (iii) plastering, (iv) civil engineering, (v) plumbing and (vi) roofing.

The Department does not produce assessments of construction vacancies or skills shortages. These are produced by the Construction Skills Network, which produces annual forecasts of demand for construction skills by occupation and by region and Devolved Administration. The forecast for the 2023-27 was published on the 18 January 2023, and identifies the need for 225,000 additional construction workers during that period, based on likely demand. This forecast is publicly available on the website of the Construction Industry Training Board: https://www.citb.co.uk/about-citb/construction-industry-research-reports/construction-skills-network-csn/.