Information on the school workforce in England, including subjects taught in state funded secondary schools, is collected as part of the annual School Workforce Census each November. Information is published in the ‘School Workforce in England’ statistical publication, available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.

The total number of hours taught for each subject are available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/38de2951-c92c-46e4-39fb-08db371965b6.

The proportion of those hours that were taught by teachers without a relevant A level or higher level qualification are available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/ee831a35-e304-4821-bb6a-08db371944c7.

Timetabled teaching is reported for a typical week in November, as determined by the school. It does not cover an entire year of teaching. If there are variations in timetabling across the year, this is not covered in the data available to the Department. To reduce the burden during the COVID-19 pandemic, schools and Local Authorities were not required to provide information on teacher qualifications in the 2020 census.

Data on the subject taught is only collected from secondary schools that use electronic timetabling software that can produce data in the format required. Data is then weighted to provide national totals. Breakdowns by Local Authority and parliamentary constituency are, therefore, not available.

Information on the school workforce in England is published in the annual ‘School Workforce in England’ national statistics release, available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.

The number of teachers without qualified teacher status in all state funded schools in England, including a breakdown by primary and secondary, and by local authority, is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/29d83b82-2aba-44c7-bb82-08db371944c7.

Data relating to schools in individual constituencies can be found in the ‘teacher and support staff numbers by school’ file, within the additional supporting files section, available at: https://content.explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/api/releases/0728fb07-f014-492c-aac9-fd11bb441601/files/2dfcc772-c410-46ac-cb9d-08da713e9200.

There are 24,000 more teachers now than in 2010. The quality of teaching is the most important in school factor in improving outcomes for children, especially for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Evidence is clear that high quality professional development can lead to improved pupil attainment.

The Department has invested in transforming training for teachers and head teachers. Every teacher and head teacher now has access to high quality, evidence based training and professional development at every stage of their career, starting with initial teacher training (ITT).

By 2024, a reformed ITT provider market will be delivering quality assured training leading to qualified teacher status (QTS) that places a greater emphasis than ever before on embedding structured practice into courses, ensuring trainees are ready to thrive in the classroom.

A new system of higher quality training provider partnerships will be supported by £36 million to introduce new Quality Requirements, including better training for mentors and the delivery of new, cutting edge, intensive training, and practice activity. Every teaching school hub will be involved in ITT to ensure that training places are available across the country.

QTS is considered desirable for teachers in most schools in England. In some schools, including academies, free schools, and independent schools, QTS is not a legal requirement. Academies have a fundamental freedom to employ talented people who do not necessarily have QTS.

Most teachers in all schools, including academies, have QTS and have undertaken initial teacher training. In the 2021/22 academic year, the latest data available, 14,771 teachers (headcount) did not have qualified teacher status, equivalent to 2.9% of teachers.

The Condition Data Collection (CDC) is one of the largest and most comprehensive data collection programmes in the UK’s public sector. It collected data on the building condition of government funded schools in England. It provides a robust evidence base to enable the Department to target capital funding for maintaining and rebuilding school buildings.

The key, high level findings of the CDC programme were published in May 2021 in the ‘Condition of School Buildings Survey: Key Findings’ report. This is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/989912/Condition_of_School_Buildings_Survey_CDC1_-_key_findings_report.pdf.

Individual CDC reports have been shared with every school and their responsible body to use alongside their existing condition surveys to plan maintenance schedules and investment plans. The Department plans to publish detailed school level CDC data. The Department is still preparing the data and will publish it as soon as possible.

Well maintained, safe school buildings are a priority for the Department. Our funding is directed both to maintaining the condition of the school estate and rebuilding schools. The Department has allocated over £13 billion for improving the condition of schools since 2015, including £1.8 billion committed this financial year.

The ten year School Rebuilding Programme (SRP) is condition led. 400 of the 500 available places on the programme have been provisionally allocated. A list of these schools and the methodology used to select them is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-rebuilding-programme-schools-in-the-programme.

The following table shows the constituencies specified that have schools or colleges selected for the SRP:

The 239 schools announced in December 2022 will enter delivery at a rate of approximately 50 per year, over a five year period from 2023. The Department is currently undertaking due diligence on these schools prior to scheduling them, with schools prioritised according to the condition of their buildings, readiness to proceed, and efficiency of delivery. The scope and funding for each project will be confirmed following detailed feasibility studies and condition surveys of buildings.

Where a school identifies significant safety issues with a building, that cannot be managed within local resources, the Department considers additional support on a case-by-case basis. This includes applications for Urgent Capital Support (UCS) from eligible institutions. Schools eligible for Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) can apply for UCS where there are urgent health and safety issues that threaten school closure and cannot wait until the next CIF bidding round.

How many people have been auto-enrolled in workplace pensions in Wantage constituency since 2012.

We keep all policies under review, and auto-enrolment got to 8% only in 2019. We will proceed with the 2017 auto-enrolment review by lowering the eligibility age and making it from the first £1 earned in due course. We will also look at all matters in terms of contribution rates on a longer-term basis as time moves on.

Auto-enrolment has been one of the most successful Government policies for the workplace in decades, but my hon. Friend will know that contributions are often not yet at the levels needed for people to have a secure retirement. What steps is he taking to encourage an increase in contribution levels?

Where Kensington leads, the rest of the country follows. There is no doubt that 36,000 is a phenomenal number of employees who are saving the 8% through auto-enrolment. My hon. Friend will be aware that, in her community and in this country, less than 40% of women were saving in a workplace pension prior to 2012, and it is now 86%. Less than 24% of young people were saving in a workplace pension, and it is now 84%. This is a game-changing policy developed under successive Governments but pioneered by this Conservative Government.

I understand that 36,000 people in Kensington have been signed up through auto-enrolment, which is great news. What can my hon. Friend do to ensure that even more people in Kensington are signed up?

Since 2012, in the Wantage constituency, 14,000 local men and women have been automatically enrolled into a workplace pension. We thank the 2,410 local employers who are helping these employees to save from 8% of their earnings.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 19^th January to question number 104377.

According to data from ThinkBroadband, 0.03% of premises in the Kensington constituency are unable to access speeds of 10Mbps through a fixed connection. This compares to a national average of 1.21% of premises that cannot access these speeds through a fixed connection. Whilst coverage is well above the national average, it is important to note that citizens will need to choose higher speed packages in order to benefit from faster speeds, and in some cases, this will involve changing networks. They can find the best services available to them by using Ofcom’s ‘Boost your Broadband’ website or using a price comparison service.

Where consumers are not able to access high-speed broadband through a fixed connection, their broadband connectivity can be supported by mobile broadband coverage. There is good 4G coverage in the London Borough of Kensington, while a number of mobile network operators are now offering 5G services within the Kensington area, which will deliver faster speeds through a mobile connection.

For those unable to access speeds of 10 Mbps through either a fixed or a mobile connection, in March 2020 the government launched the broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) which gives every premises the legal right to request a broadband connection with download speeds of at least 10Mbps and upload speeds of 1Mbps. Residents can find out if they are eligible by visiting BT’s USO postcode checker.

Further details on the USO can be found here.

The Government does not hold this information.

Air pollution has reduced significantly since 2010 – at a national level emissions of fine particulate matter have fallen by 11%, while emissions of nitrogen oxides are at their lowest level since records began. The Government is committed to going further and is taking a range of actions to improve air quality, including through the landmark Environment Act 2021 and by implementing the Clean Air Strategy.

Transport in London is devolved meaning the Department has no role in respect of borough decisions of this sort, which are a matter for the Mayor of London. The Department was not, therefore, formally consulted on the Royal Borough’s plans. As a general point, the Department agrees that local authorities should not remove cycle lanes before their impacts have been properly assessed, and will shortly issue further advice to authorities on this matter.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has been allocated a total of around £1 million from the Department’s Active Travel Fund and Transport for London’s London Streetspace Programme. This has supported a number of active travel measures in its area in response to the pandemic including school streets, low traffic neighbourhoods, changes to the public realm to allow greater social distancing, and cycle lanes like the one on Kensington High Street. Funding is generally transferred once schemes are delivered and once claims are brought forward by each Borough, meaning that the total amount of funding provided to date is much less than the total allocated. Borough payments are due to be finalised in September 2021, and will reflect scheme delivery in each area. No funding has been or will be provided to the Royal Borough to cover the costs of removing the cycle lane on Kensington High Street.

In common with other authorities in London and elsewhere, the Royal Borough’s performance in delivering active travel infrastructure is being taken into account in all future funding allocations. The delivery of active travel schemes in London and decisions on active travel funding for individual boroughs are overseen by a group including senior representatives from the Department for Transport and Transport for London.

The Department will be issuing updated statutory Network Management Duty guidance to all local transport authorities shortly which will make clear that they should always leave cycling and walking schemes in place for long enough for their impacts to be properly assessed.