Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the (a) feasibility and (b) cost to the public purse of enabling supply teachers to contribute to the teachers' pension scheme.

Supply teachers are able to participate in the Teachers' Pension Scheme (TPS) where they are employed by an ‘accepted employer'. In the main, these are local authorities (LAs), academies and further education colleges. This includes supply teachers who are recruited by a supply agency but then employed directly, under a contract of employment, by the accepted employer. The LA, academy or further education college is responsible for meeting a number of obligations that fall to employers under the teachers' pensions regulations, not least of which is to pay the employer contribution to the TPS.

However, where supply teachers are self-employed or remain employed by the supply agency, and their services are provided under a ‘contract for services', it is not possible for them to participate in the TPS. This is because the Department for Education cannot mandate that private sector employers participate in the scheme.

It is for LAs, academies and further education colleges to determine how supply teachers are employed – which can in turn enable access to the TPS under the current arrangements.