The government is investing around £1.8 billion over three years to develop Experts at Hand, giving mainstream education settings access to specialist support from professionals including speech and language therapists (SaLTs), occupational therapists, educational psychologists and assistants, and specialists such as Qualified Teachers of Children and Young People with Vision Impairments. We will help settings access wider specialist support where appropriate, including for sensory impairment and habilitation.

Experts at Hand will support mainstream settings better identify and meet the needs of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) through dedicated professional expertise delivered alongside setting staff. It will support earlier identification of need, strengthen workforce confidence and capability, and provide timely, evidence-based support within everyday learning environments.

We are investing over £40 million in the specialist workforce over the next three years, including £26 million to train educational psychologists, £15 million to enable SaLTs to work in education settings, and will invest in upskilling speech and language support workers.

We are supporting the wider education workforce through a new inclusion training package, backed by over £200 million of investment over three years, helping teachers and leaders build skills and confidence to support children and young people with SEND in mainstream settings.

Local authorities are responsible for ensuring there are sufficient places to deliver the childcare entitlements and give every child the best start in life. The department maintains close contact with local authorities to monitor sufficiency of childcare in their area, ensuring challenges are identified early and support is provided where needed.

We continue to work with local authorities to strengthen sufficiency planning, and improve data on the availability of suitable places, including for those needing specialist support.

We have seen significant growth in the early years workforce and continue to help people discover rewarding early years careers through the ‘Do something Big’ recruitment campaign, building on our pilot to offer financial incentives to attract and retain the best educators and introducing flexibilities for childminders.

We also recently published our early years funding consultation, which sets out our vision for a reformed early years funding system for the early years entitlements, alongside proposals for transition in 2027/28.

In England, there were 137,520 full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers as at 30 September 2025. We are putting officers where the public expects to see them, back on the frontline keeping our communities safe. We are committed to delivering 13,000 additional neighbourhood policing personnel by 2029 and have already delivered more than 3,100 additional police officers and PCSOs into neighbourhood roles.

In addition, as part of our measures to tackle antisemitism, we have announced funding for an additional 500 FTE personnel in areas where we need them most.

The next data publication covering the police workforce as at 31 March 2026 will be released on 22 July 2026.

Decisions on employment in obstetrics and gynaecology are a matter for individual National Health Service trusts which manage their recruitment at a local level, ensuring they have the right number of staff in place, with the right skill mix, to deliver safe and effective care.

As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we are working closely with NHS England, employers, and educators to improve transition into the workforce.

The Government is committed to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan to set out action to create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed service set out in the 10-Year Health Plan.

The Department for Transport and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) do not hold data on the recruitment, retirement or other departures of air traffic controllers. Air traffic control providers are responsible for maintaining sufficient operational capacity and qualified personnel, with the CAA providing safety oversight. Since 2022-23, the Civil Aviation Authority has published the number of licensed air traffic controllers in its Annual Report and Accounts.

As the UK aviation sector operates predominantly in the private sector, airlines are responsible for recruiting and training pilots to meet current and future demand. Airlines including British Airways and Jet2.com are expanding training through sponsored cadet programmes and partnerships with approved training organisations. The Department and the CAA do not hold data on applications to, enrolments in, or completions of approved aircraft maintenance engineer training programmes.

The CAA does publish data on holders of British Civil Airworthiness Requirements and Part-66 aircraft maintenance licences, including their age profile. There were nearly 14,000 UK licensed aircraft engineers covering both the commercial and general aviation sectors in 2025. Airports are responsible for decisions on expanding their own training academies and colleges.

The Department engages regularly with airport officials on a range of operational, strategic, and policy matters affecting the sector.

The table below shows the May 2026 average waiting time (based on the national average waiting time metric of when a minimum of 10% of test slots are available) and number of tests booked and available for a car practical driving test at Slough driving test centre (DTC) as of 15 June 2026.

The table below shows the number of slots that were available in each of the last 12 months for Slough DTC. Please note, this data reflects the end position of any given month and includes slots that were booked or still available to be booked at the end of each month.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is continuing with its recruitment campaigns for new driving examiners (DE) at Slough to provide as many tests as possible. A full-time DE can be expected to add approximately 1,200 tests per year to the booking system.

Between June 2025 and May 2026, DVSA has increased the number of DEs at Slough DTC from 5 to 7, which equates to 6.24 full-time equivalent DEs now at the DTC.

From recent recruitment campaigns, DVSA has had 10 successful potential new DEs for Slough, and DVSA is currently in the process of making employment offers to these candidates.

DVSA has also worked with the Department for Work and Pensions to run a site specific direct temporary recruitment campaign for Slough. There has been 1 successful candidate from this so far, with DVSA hoping to undertake driving assessments for a further 7 applicants in early September.

In April 2026 there were 1,618 full-time equivalent (FTE) driving examiners (DE) in post, and out of those, 1,604 were available to deliver practical car driving tests. In April 2026, 16 DEs started conducting tests. The data for May is still being finalised and will be available later in June.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/driving-test-and-theory-test-data-cars shows the number of car practical driving tests conducted up to April 2026.

The table below shows the number of overtime tests for the period April to May 2026.

The answer, 20 April 2026, to written question 127306, provided data for March 2026.

The Government has already made significant progress in strengthening the mental health workforce, including by delivering our commitment to recruit an additional 8,500 mental health staff three years ahead of schedule, which will help to ease pressure on services and expand access to care.

We will publish a 10 Year Workforce Plan to set out action to create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed service set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. We will ensure the National Health Service has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need when they need it.

But there is much more to do. That is why we are developing the new cross-Government mental health strategy for England which will aim to transform mental health care into a system that responds earlier, reduces waiting times for support, and intervenes before distress escalates to diagnosis or crisis. Transforming the system will take time, but we are committed to delivering a different approach.

We have not made an estimate of the number of additional mental health professionals required to deliver the strategy. The strategy reflects the need for a new approach to mental health, where support better matches people’s needs and circumstances, including through support delivered within and beyond the NHS.

The Call for Evidence, which is open until 10 July, invites views on the main enablers that are needed for delivering services and this vision, such as workforce.

Travel arrangements with bus operators are typically not in scope for the Department’s rail Public Ownership Programme. Under the TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006) process, the Department is currently consulting Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) staff affected by the removal of this reciprocal travel benefit arrangement. Current reciprocal travel arrangements between Brighton & Hove and Metrobus and GTR are internal travel benefits provided by Go-Ahead Group. GTR’s successor public sector organisation, Thameslink Southern Great Northern Limited, will not be part of Go-Ahead Group.