Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department plans to take into consideration the historic under-recruitment of subject-specialist teachers in the future allocation of teacher training bursaries.

When deciding the bursaries for Initial Teacher Training (ITT), the Department takes a number of factors into account including historic recruitment, forecast economic conditions and teacher supply need in each subject.

The unprecedented increase in new entrants to ITT seen in 2020/21 has declined over the past two years. The graduate labour market became more competitive and pay has risen in competing sectors.

To respond to this challenge, the Department announced an ITT financial incentives package worth up to £181 million for 2023/24, which is a £52 million increase on the previous year. This includes bursaries worth £27,000 tax free and scholarships worth £29,000 tax free, to encourage talented trainees to teach in key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing.