Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the number of long-term contracts for supply teachers as contingent labour that were cancelled in response to the covid-19 outbreak.

The Department does not collect data specifically on the number of supply teachers or teachers employed by agencies.

The Department has published guidance for schools and the school workforce which sets out that schools should continue to pay staff that they directly hire. Where schools had contracts with directly hired staff that have been terminated earlier than the original terms set out due to COVID-19, these contracts should be reinstated on the terms previously agreed.

Guidance is available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-school-closures/guidance-for-schools-about-temporarily-closing#supply-teachers-and-other-contingent-workers.