Vol. 810 Monday No. 190 22 February 2021 PARLIAMENTARYDEBATES (HANSARD) HOUSE OF LORDS OFFICIAL REPORT ORDEROFBUSINESS Retirements of Members....................................................................................................603 Questions Education: Supply Teachers ...........................................................................................603 Questions for Written Answer ........................................................................................607 Political Parties: Expenditure Limits ..............................................................................610 Food-related Crime ........................................................................................................613 Covid-19: Surplus Vaccine Doses Private Notice Question ..................................................................................................617 Clerk of the Parliaments Announcement of Successor ............................................................................................621 Building Safety Statement........................................................................................................................622 Ministerial and other Maternity Allowances Bill Second Reading...............................................................................................................635 Procedure and Privileges Motion to Agree..............................................................................................................692 Hereditary Peers: By-elections Motion to Agree..............................................................................................................708 Cessation of Membership Motion to Approve ..........................................................................................................708 Grand Committee Financial Services Bill Committee (1st Day) ................................................................................................GC 99 Lords wishing to be supplied with these Daily Reports should give notice to this effect to the Printed Paper Office. No proofs of Daily Reports are provided. Corrections for the bound volume which Lords wish to suggest to the report of their speeches should be clearly indicated in a copy of the Daily Report, which, with the column numbers concerned shown on the front cover, should be sent to the Editor of Debates, House of Lords, within 14 days of the date of the Daily Report. This issue of the Official Report is also available on the Internet at https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2021-02-22 In Hybrid sittings, [V] after a Member’s name indicates that they contributed by video call. The following abbreviations are used to show a Member’s party affiliation: Abbreviation Party/Group CB Cross Bench Con Conservative DUP Democratic Unionist Party GP Green Party Ind Lab Independent Labour Ind LD Independent Liberal Democrat Ind SD Independent Social Democrat Ind UU Independent Ulster Unionist Lab Labour Lab Co-op Labour and Co-operative Party LD Liberal Democrat LD Ind Liberal Democrat Independent Non-afl Non-affiliated PC Plaid Cymru UKIP UK Independence Party UUP Ulster Unionist Party No party affiliation is given for Members serving the House in a formal capacity, the Lords spiritual, Members on leave of absence or Members who are otherwise disqualified from sitting in the House. © Parliamentary Copyright House of Lords 2021, this publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 603 Retirements of Members [22 FEBRUARY 2021] Education: Supply Teachers 604 House of Lords Baroness Berridge (Con) [V]: My Lords, the Government are investing £2.6 billion in school budgets Monday 22 February 2021 this year. In relation to supply teachers, the Government The House met in a hybrid proceeding. have entered into an arrangement, involving the Crown Commercial Service, to help schools to use teacher 1 pm agencies and to make the fees transparent. It is clear that any teacher from an agency regulated by BEIS Prayers—read by the Lord Bishop of Newcastle. who is employed for 12 weeks becomes a permanent member of staff with all the entitlements that that Retirements of Members gives them. Announcement Lord Lucas (Con) [V]: My Lords, I am grateful that 1.07 pm my noble friend acknowledges the role that the flexible The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler): My Lords, the workforce has played during the pandemic, but I echo Hybrid Sitting of the House will now begin. Some the request from the noble Viscount, Lord Hanworth, Members are here in the Chamber,others are participating that we set out to make sure that these people are well remotely, but all Members will be treated equally. treated, that their rights are protected and that, in I should like to notify the House of the retirements, offering an efficient and value-for-money service, we with effect from 12 February, of the noble Lord, build for them a good career structure. Lord Wilson of Tillyorn, and, with effect from Baroness Berridge (Con) [V]: My Lords, indeed, this 19 February, of the noble Baroness, Lady Tonge, is a regulated sector. Employers—namely, schools—and pursuant to Section 1 of the House of Lords Reform agency workers make use of this arrangement, and Act 2014. On behalf of the House, I should like to many teaching staff who are coming to the end of thank the noble Lord and noble Baroness for their their career and who want to work in this flexible way very much-valued service to this House. take advantage of it. It is an advantage to the agency Oral Questions will now commence. Please can staff that they can choose to work one day or one those asking supplementary questions keep them short week out of three and, as I said, it is particularly and confined to two points? I ask that Ministers’ attractive to those ending their career, but of course answers are also brief. there are protections to balance the advantages for the employee and those for the employer. Education: Supply Teachers Question The Earl of Clancarty (CB): My Lords, the noble Baroness will be aware of what Matt Hancock said 1.08 pm yesterday about vaccinating teachers. If the Government Asked by Viscount Hanworth reconsider, will they ensure that supply teachers are not overlooked? Moving around, they are in a particularly To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate vulnerable position, which is one very good reason they have made of the proportion of teaching posts why teachers should be vaccinated before any full in (1) London, and (2) elsewhere in England, which return. are currently being filled by supply teacher agencies. Baroness Berridge (Con) [V]: My Lords, the Joint TheParliamentaryUnder-Secretaryof State,Department Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation asked for Education and Department for International Trade for a cross-governmental response on occupational (Baroness Berridge) (Con) [V]: [Inaudible]—perform a vaccination and the department responded to that. I valuable role and make an important contribution to can assure the noble Earl that that was for the entire the running of schools by covering temporary staff education workforce and that representation included absences. The department does not hold data on the all people, temporary and permanent, including those proportion of teaching posts provided by supply teacher in early years. agencies. School leaders have autonomy over workforce planning, including how they manage absences. The Baroness Blower (Lab) [V]: My Lords, the school department has provided guidance to schools on ways workforce census for the 2016 cohort shows that more to manage absences, including the use of supply staff. than a quarter of teachers left teaching in the early years of their career. The loss of one in four teachers Viscount Hanworth (Lab): I thank the Minister for within three years speaks volumes about the difficulty that Answer. Teaching is becoming part of the gig and problems involved in retaining teachers. What economy. Head teachers and school governors faced plans do the Government have to address this workforce with limited budgets are unwilling to employ new recruitment problem—looking at workload, among teachers on a permanent basis. By recruiting teachers other things—to ensure that we have enough teachers from agencies,they can avoid paying pension contributions to fill all the posts in schools on a permanent basis and sickness benefits and they can more easily dismiss rather than relying on supply teachers, who already the teachers when faced with financial difficulties. The have an important role to play providing short-term agencies typically take fees of at least £100 per week cover? from teachers’ pay. These circumstances are making teaching an unattractive career choice and threaten to Baroness Berridge (Con) [V]: The noble Baroness is undermine the standards of teaching. What, if anything, correct that we want to retain the talented teachers are the Government doing to address them? whom we recruit each year. We are delighted that there 605 Education: Supply Teachers[LORDS] Education: Supply Teachers 606 [BARONESS BERRIDGE] Lord Randall of Uxbridge (Con) [V]: My Lords, has been an increase in recruitment this year of 23%. does my noble friend agree that the teacher shortages The early career framework should address the issues in London are in large part due to the cost of housing that she outlined: a one-year initial teacher training in the capital? Does she consider that