The department recognises the importance of specialist skills in delivering modernised airspace and is working closely with the Civil Aviation Authority to monitor and address any potential shortages. The new UK Airspace Design Service will help focus resources where they are most needed and could ultimately become a centre of excellence for airspace design.

There has been a 40 per cent reduction in traincrew-related cancellations across Thameslink and Great Northern in FY 2025/26 compared with FY2024/25. This is partly as a result of a sustained driver recruitment campaign, which is supporting improved reliability.

GTR inform us that for the period between 25 May 2025 and 30 May 2026, traincrew-related issues accounted for 20 per cent of cancellations on Great Northern services and 33 per cent on Thameslink services, showing more work is needed to maintain momentum in this area.

Addressing cancellations caused by traincrew on Greater Thameslink Railway services is a priority for the Department for Transport Operator going forward.

The Best Start in Life Strategy lays the foundation for long-term improvements to recruitment and retention in the early years sector. Initiatives to improve recruitment and retention include the ‘Do something BIG’ recruitment campaign, financial incentives, a new early years teacher degree apprenticeship, an assessment-only route to achieve a level 3 qualification and operational flexibilities for childminders. Shorter-duration apprenticeships also launched from August 2025, which will mean apprentices will be able to train up more quickly where that is appropriate.

The government has also introduced an experience-based route for early years staff. This route allows suitable and experienced early years staff without an approved qualification to be included in the staff: child ratios at level 3, following successful completion of a period of supervised practice in an early years setting, recognising that staff members with the right experience and knowledge can offer a great deal to the care and education of young children.

The Government is taking significant steps to help employers tackle recruitment shortages while supporting young people to enter, remain in and progress in work.

With over one million young people not in education, employment or training, we are investing an additional £2.5 billion over the next three years through the Youth Guarantee and the Growth and Skills Levy. This will support almost one million young people and create up to 500,000 opportunities to earn and learn, in partnership with employers. Measures include a £3,000 Youth Jobs Grant, a £2,000 apprenticeship hiring payment for employers, and fully funded six-month job opportunities for long-term unemployed 18–24-year-olds, an expanded network of Youth Hubs, earlier and more intensive support through a new Youth Guarantee Gateway in Jobcentres, and 300,000 additional work experience and training opportunities.

We also recognise the challenge of youth participation highlighted in Alan Milburn’s interim report and will use its findings to inform further reforms ahead of final recommendations in the Autumn.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 2020 on 27 May 2026.

The department is investing around £1.8 billion over the next three years for local area partnerships, including local authorities and integrated care boards (ICBs), to develop a new ‘Experts at Hand’ offer. This offer is designed to strengthen the capability of mainstream education settings by providing access to support across health and education, including from educational psychologists and trainees, speech and language therapists and support workers or assistants, occupational therapists and support workers or assistants; and specialist teachers, both local authority-based and those based in specialist or alternative provision settings.

To support delivery of the offer, we are investing over £40 million in the specialist workforce, including £26 million to train at least 200 educational psychologists per year from 2026 and 2027, followed by additional funding from 2028 to train more educational psychologists than we currently do, subject to future spending review. This is in addition to the £31 million already invested to train educational psychologists since 2023.

Upon graduating, trainees who have had their training funded by the department are required remain in local authority employment for a minimum period (three years, or two for earlier cohorts, dependent on when their training started). Investment in this vital workforce will therefore help to ensure that the local authority educational psychology workforce is able to support all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

The remaining £15 million will be invested to establish new speech and language therapist (SaLT) advanced practitioners in every ICB geographical area, to get more SaLTs working in educational settings.

High-quality teaching is the in-school factor that has the biggest positive impact on a child’s outcomes, and recruiting and retaining expert teachers is critical to the government’s mission to break down the barriers to opportunity for every child.

We have now achieved over 70% of the 6,500 additional teachers target. There are 4,654 more teachers, including 3,008 more teachers in secondary and special schools in 2025/26, and 1,646 in further education (FE), compared to the 2023/24 baseline.

We are making progress where teachers are needed most based on changing demographics, with the number of secondary school pupils now starting to fall, and more young people in FE. In secondary schools, pupil-teacher ratios remain stable with a small drop to 16.7 pupils per teacher, meaning there are slightly more teachers per pupil in secondary school in 2025/26 than there were in when this government took over. Leaver rates have also dropped to one of the lowest on record (8.5%).

The future pipeline is also positive, this year (2025/26) we saw a 13% overall increase in secondary ITT applications, and a 22% increase in STEM applications, exceeding our STEM target for the first time.

We are strengthening the skills system so people of all ages can gain the qualifications needed for jobs in a changing economy.

Skills England leads on work to identify skills needs, simplify the system, and align training with labour‑market demand. It also works with the both the Department for Education and Department for Business and Trade to ensure skills provision supports the government’s Industrial Strategy and key growth sectors. Additionally, Strategic Authorities have a key role in skills in their areas, and Local Skills Improvement Plans create frameworks for local collaboration between employers and providers.

The Post‑16 Education and Skills White Paper, published in 2025, sets out a vision for a world‑leading system that widens access, meets employer needs, and supports innovation. Reforms by the department include new V Levels and two clear Level 2 pathways, expanding apprenticeships, the introduction of foundation apprenticeships and a new growth and skills levy, as well as investing in higher‑level technical qualifications and providing support for priority sectors.

The independent Office of National Statistics (ONS) publishes vacancies over time by sector which can be found here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/unemployment/datasets/vacanciesbyindustryvacs02

The ONS official statistics shows that the decline in vacancies in the UK is a long-term trend that began in summer 2022 under the previous Government. Every sector of the economy has seen declines in vacancies since summer 2022.

The Department of Work and Pensions is committed to supporting people into employment. We are transforming our Jobcentres into a modern Jobs and Careers Service; where appropriate, Work Coaches identify skills gaps and signpost jobseekers to relevant training and provision, including Skills Bootcamps, apprenticeships, sector‑based work academy programmes (SWAPs), and free courses for jobs, as well as essential English, maths and digital skills.

We are delivering our flagship Youth Guarantee, ensuring support for young people through investing £2.5 billion over the next three years. Further, we are empowering local areas to explore new ways to reduce economic inactivity through youth and inactivity trailblazers. We are also developing tailored support for those with health conditions and disabilities through our Pathways to Work, which is backed by £1 billion a year of new funding by the end of the decade.

This Government is transforming the apprenticeships levy into a new growth and skills levy in England, backed by £1 billion of additional investment, which will support 50,000 more young people into apprenticeships over the next three years. We are also expanding opportunities through new foundation apprenticeships in hospitality and retail, launching a level 2 Administrative Assistant apprenticeship from August 2026, and introducing a £2,000 hiring payment for non-levy paying employers (typically SMEs) that recruit 16-24-year-old apprentices.

The department monitors labour market trends closely and recognises pressures in sectors such as retail and hospitality.

We have introduced permanently lower business‑rates multipliers for retail, hospitality and leisure properties, introduced a £4.3 billion transitional support package and are bringing forward a new High Streets Strategy, to help reinvigorate our communities. In January, the government announced a major support package focused on business rates and licensing reform to help pubs facing sustained pressures with every pub receiving a 15% cut to new business rates bills, followed by a two year real-terms freeze. We have significantly increased the Hospitality Support Fund, with £10 million funding over three years, and have protected the smallest businesses and charities from the impact of the increase to employer NICs by more than doubling the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500.

To create more opportunities for young people at the start of their careers, we have expanded foundation apprenticeships into hospitality and retail.

Ministers continue to engage closely with industry through forums such as the Retail and Hospitality Sector Councils, and keep support under review, focusing on long-term resilience.

As stated in the answer to Question 121903 the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) does not centrally hold a snapshot of the total number of driving examiner vacancies by calendar month but continually reviews its workforce requirements in response to customer demand and operational need. Recruitment is managed through ongoing national and regional campaigns rather than fixed monthly vacancy totals.

The responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population is delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Ely and East Cambridgeshire constituency, this is the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICB.

ICBs are continuing to recruit dentists through the Golden Hello scheme. The scheme offers a £20,000 recruitment incentive payment to dentists to work in those areas that need them most. The recruitment of dentists in underserved areas remains a priority and ICBs continue to be able to use the scheme in 2026/27, alongside locally led schemes.

Golden Hello data will be published this year and will consist of data showing the regional distribution of the original allocation of posts and the number of posts recruited to at both a national and regional level.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council publishes data twice a year on the makeup of its professional register, and this includes information on the number of people trained in the United Kingdom who have joined the register for the first time, which will be a close proxy for newly qualified nurses and midwives. This information can be found at the link below:

https://www.nmc.org.uk/about-us/reports-and-accounts/registration-statistics/

The data shows 22,176 nursing and midwifery first time registrants, who were resident in England, joining in the year to March 2025 who will largely have entered education three years earlier, in the 2021/22 academic year. Data published by the Office for Students as part of the Higher Education Students Early Statistics release shows nursing and midwifery undergraduate entrants fell 9% between 2021/22 and 2022/23 and a further 14% between 2022/23 and 2024 after a big increase in joiners during 2020/21 and 2021/22. We might therefore expect that numbers joining the Nursing and Midwifery Council register fall similar amounts in 2025/26 and 2026/27.

The Department does not hold information on the number of band 5 nursing and midwifery vacancies there were in 2025/26 or that there are projected to be in 2026/27. Data is published quarterly on total registered nursing vacancies and can found at the link below:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-vacancies-survey

It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.