Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Epping Forest)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department are taking to help increase the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of vets in the public sector.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra is aware of the numerous challenges facing recruitment and retention of qualified veterinary surgeons into Government roles. The Animal and Plant Health Agency and the Food Standards Agency have been looking at ways to increase recruitment into Government and Defra has been working with the vet sector at blockers and options to support recruitment and retention.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what data his Department holds on retention rates for prison officers.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Department does not publish a ‘retention rate’ for prison officers. The quarterly HMPPS workforce statistics includes resignation rates for prison officers, which refers to the percentage of staff with a permanent contract of employment who resigned from HMPPS, and leaving rates, which refers to the percentage of staff with a permanent contract of employment who left HMPPS, including individuals who have retired early, but excluding staff who left due to voluntary early departure schemes and redundancy.
The latest data in the quarterly HMPPS workforce statistics covers the period up to the end of June 2025 and are available here: HM Prison and Probation Service workforce quarterly: June 2025 - GOV.UK.
We remain committed to ensuring prisons are sufficiently resourced and that we retain levels of experience, both of which are fundamental to delivering quality outcomes in prisons. To help increase retention, HMPPS has created a retention strategy which is linked to wider activities around employee experience, employee lifecycle and staff engagement at work. Alongside the strategy, a retention toolkit has been introduced which identifies local, regional and national interventions against the drivers of attrition, which are utilised by establishments to ensure that they are embedding individual Retention Plans.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve retention rates for doctors.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, the Government is committed to making the National Health Service the best place to work, by supporting and retaining our hardworking and dedicated healthcare professionals. We will publish a 10 Year Workforce Plan later in 2025 setting out how we will ensure staff are better treated, have better training, more fulfilling roles and hope for the future, so they can achieve more.
We will work with the Social Partnership Forum to introduce a new set of staff standards for modern employment, covering issues such as access to healthy meals, support to work healthily and flexibly, and tackling violence, racism and sexual harassment in the workplace.
We have made significant progress over the past year to improve the working lives of resident doctors. This includes agreeing an improved exception reporting system which will ensure doctors are compensated fairly for the additional work that they do and reviewing how resident doctors rotate through their training.
NHS England is leading work nationally through its retention programme to drive a consistent, system-wide approach to staff retention across NHS trusts.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve the retention of social care workers in areas with a high rate of vacancies.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
English local authorities have responsibility under the Care Act 2014 to meet social care needs, and statutory guidance directs them to ensure there is sufficient workforce in adult social care.
Skills for Care data suggests the adult social care workforce is growing. Skills for Care data shows in 2024/25 there were 1.6 million filled posts, an increase of 52,000, or 3.4%, from 2023/24. Skills for Care data also shows that the turnover rate decreased from 25.8% in 2023/24 to 24.7% in 2024/25 in the independent sector.
The Government is committed to a well-supported adult social care workforce who are recognised as the professionals they are. Those with the opportunity to develop and progress in their role are far more likely to remain within the adult social care workforce. That is why we are delivering an ambitious programme of reforms with the aim of attracting people to join and remain in the sector, help professionalise the workforce, and improve the quality and experience of those receiving care. These include delivering the first universal career structure for the whole adult social care sector, a Learning and Development Support Scheme backed by up to £12 million funding in 2025/26, and introducing a Fair Pay Agreement.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many GPs have (a) been hired and (b) left practice since July 2024.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Between June 2024 and June 2025, the most recent period for which data is available, 2,611 full time equivalent (FTE), or 4,174 headcount, fully qualified general practitioners (GPs) joined general practice, while 1,760 FTE, or 2,756 headcount, fully qualified GPs left general practice.
Asked by: Laura Kyrke-Smith (Labour - Aylesbury)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to (a) support retention in the police in England and (b) increase the number of police officers in Aylesbury constituency.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
In 2025/26, the Home Office is providing a total of up to £17.4 billion for police forces, which is an increase of up to £987 million compared to the 2024/25 police funding settlement. This includes a total of up to £376.8 million specifically to support officer maintenance at the expected headcount levels.
Thames Valley Police will receive up to £627.4 million in funding in 2025/26, an increase of up to £40.8 million when compared to the 2024/25 funding settlement, which represents a 7% cash increase and a 3.6% real terms increase in funding. This includes a total allocation of £10,662,824 to support the maintenance of 4,978 police officers (headcount).
As part of this, Thames Valley Police has been allocated a total of up and £6,093,042 to increasing neighbourhood policing roles, and, the projected growth for Thames Valley Police over 2025/26 will be 68 police officers (FTE) in neighbourhood policing roles.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure schools have sufficient funding to retain experienced teachers alongside recruiting new staff.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
This government recognises the importance of retaining experienced teachers. We have demonstrated our commitment to supporting schools by increasing school funding by £3.7 billion in the 2025/26 financial year, meaning the core school budget will total £65.3 billion compared to £61.6 billion in 2024/25.
In the 2025 spending review, the department has announced that funding for schools will further increase by £4.2 billion per year by 2028/29, compared to 2025/26. This additional funding will provide an above real terms per pupil increase in the core schools budget.
The increase for 2025/26 includes additional funding to support schools with overall costs, including the costs of the 4% schools teacher pay award and the local government services pay award in respect of support staff in 2025/26.
This follows government agreeing a 5.5% pay award for academic year 2024/25. Taken together, this means teachers and leaders will see an increase in their pay of almost 10% over two years.
For 2024/25 and 2025/26, the department is also offering retention payments worth up to £6,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to introduce targeted retention incentives for experienced teachers in addition to those offered to early-career teachers.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Supporting our expert teachers is critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child, as the within-school factor that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcomes is high-quality teaching. Combined with the previous year’s 5.5% award, this year’s above-inflation pay award will mean schoolteachers have seen an increase in their pay of almost 10% over two years.
The financial incentives the department offers are targeted where there is most need to recruit and retain teachers. School workforce data shows that teachers are most likely to leave within the first five years of their career. Targeted Retention Incentives are currently offered to mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools as it is vital that we retain new teachers in these priority subjects and in the schools that need them most.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the retention rate amongst NHS midwives.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, the Government is committed to making the National Health Service the best place to work, by supporting and retaining our hardworking and dedicated healthcare professionals, including midwives.
To support this ambition, the Government plans to introduce a new set of standards for modern employment in April 2026. The new standards will reaffirm our commitment to improving retention by tackling the issues that matter to staff, including promoting flexible working, improving staff health and wellbeing, and dealing with violence, racism, and sexual harassment in the NHS workplace. They will provide a framework for leaders across the NHS to build a supportive culture that embeds retention.
NHS England is already leading work nationally through its retention programme to drive a consistent, system-wide approach to staff retention across NHS trusts. This ensures trusts have access to proven retention strategies, data-driven monitoring, and can foster a more stable, engaged, productive, and supported workforce.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve staff retention in NHS midwifery services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, the Government is committed to making the National Health Service the best place to work, by supporting and retaining our hardworking and dedicated healthcare professionals, including midwives.
To support this ambition, the Government plans to introduce a new set of standards for modern employment in April 2026. The new standards will reaffirm our commitment to improving retention by tackling the issues that matter to staff, including promoting flexible working, improving staff health and wellbeing, and dealing with violence, racism, and sexual harassment in the NHS workplace. They will provide a framework for leaders across the NHS to build a supportive culture that embeds retention.
NHS England is already leading work nationally through its retention programme to drive a consistent, system-wide approach to staff retention across NHS trusts. This ensures trusts have access to proven retention strategies, data-driven monitoring, and can foster a more stable, engaged, productive, and supported workforce.