The UK Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee has criticised the Department for Education for “lacking a coherent plan” to meet the government’s pledge to recruit 6,500 additional teachers in England by 2029. In a report published on 9 July, MPs said the department has provided no baseline, milestones or costings, and has not explained how the figure was calculated or how progress will be measured. The committee found that 46 percent of secondary schools reported at least one teaching vacancy in the most recent academic year, while further-education colleges could need up to 12,400 more teachers by 2028. Despite the DfE spending about £700 million a year on recruitment and retention schemes, MPs said there is little evidence that initiatives such as flexible working pilots or wellbeing programmes have been properly evaluated. PAC chair Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown warned that without clear targets the teacher-recruitment promise “risks being meaningless”, particularly in disadvantaged areas where staff shortages are acute and subject gaps are widening. The report urged the department to publish a detailed delivery plan with measurable milestones and regular updates to Parliament. A DfE spokesperson responded that the government is already making progress, citing 2,300 more secondary and special-school teachers in classrooms this year and one of the lowest teacher leave rates since 2010. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has yet to outline how the remaining shortfall will be addressed.