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Written question asked by Lord Lexden (Conservative) on Tuesday, 1 September 2026, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 15 September 2026. It was answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern (Labour) on Wednesday, 16 September 2026 on behalf of the Department for Education.

Teachers

Question

To ask His Majesty's Government how many more teachers are there in England now than on 1 January 2025.

Answer

The government has pledged to recruit 6,500 additional teachers across state-funded secondary and special schools, further education (FE) colleges and school-based FE providers during this Parliament. Progress against this pledge is measured using published workforce statistics and uses the 2023/24 academic year as the baseline. The pledge does not include primary schools, where the pupil population has been declining.

The latest published data, show that there were 3,008 more full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers in state-funded secondary and special schools in 2025/26 than in 2023/24, and 1,646 more FTE teachers in FE colleges and school-based FE providers in 2024/25 than in 2023/24.

Taken together, this represents an increase of 4,654 FTE teachers compared with the 2023/24 baseline, equivalent to 71.6% of the government's 6,500 additional teachers pledge.

The 2025/26 FE workforce figures are due to be published in December. Progress figures are published annually through the School Workforce in England and further education workforce official statistics, which is available on GOV.UK.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
HL2885
Session
2026-27
Subjects
Teachers
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk