§ Mr. BradyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate she has made of the number of permanent teaching posts in maintained schools which were not filled on the first day of the current term; and what percentage this is of the total number of permanent teaching posts. [7490]
§ Mr. Timms[holding answer 15 October 2001]: It is estimated, based on a telephone survey conducted on 6–7 September 2001, that there were about 2,000 full-time vacancies (0.6 per cent. of posts) in nursery, primary and secondary schools.
These figures were obtained from a telephone survey of nearly 1,500 schools conducted by DfES. Teacher vacancies are measured using the standard DfES definition, which excludes posts filled by a full-time teacher on a contract of one term or more.