Recruitment has been challenging, across the economy, as we recover from the pandemic. As expected, the unprecedented increase in new entrants to ITT that we saw in 2020/21, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, has declined over the past 2 years. The graduate and general labour markets became more competitive and pay has risen in competing sectors, especially in STEM subjects. As mentioned in paragraph 14, the Department recognises that there are greater challenges in recruiting and retaining teachers in some subjects, including in STEM subjects. Therefore, there is a need for more targeted measures to boost teacher supply in these subjects, and we are already pursuing these. As mentioned in paragraph 15, we have made £181 million available in bursaries and scholarships to attract trainee teachers in high-priority subjects for academic year 2023/24, a £52million increase on the current academic year. These include £27,000 tax-free bursaries and £29,000 tax-free scholarships for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing trainees. We review the bursaries and scholarships on offer, annually, to ensure we maximise recruitment in the subjects where new teachers are most needed. There is strong evidence that increasing bursaries increases ITT recruitment. NFER (National Foundation for Educational Research) has recently published independent research which corroborates the Department for Education’s analysis that a £1,000 increase in bursary value results in a c. 3% increase in applicants, on average, all other things being equal. We are also providing a Levelling-Up Premium, worth up to £3,000 tax-free, for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers, who work in disadvantaged schools, including in Education Investment Areas. This will support recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most. The Levelling-Up Premium is also informed by strong evidence that retention payments can increase teacher supply. A UCL (University College London) evaluation of a previous mathematics and physics retention payments pilot found that a payment worth 8% of salary reduced leavers by 23%.