I propose to take Questions Nos. 639, 690, 691 and 713 together.
Under Section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, each Chief Executive is responsible for the staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authority for which he/she is responsible. My Department oversees the workforce planning framework for the local government sector, including the monitoring of local government sector employment levels. To this end, my Department gathers aggregate quarterly data on staff numbers in each local authority on a whole time equivalent basis, however, my Department does not collect or hold granular data such as educational awards held by local authority employees and has no role or function in this regard.
The review of engineering qualifications for the local government sector undertaken by a Working Group, on which local authorities and my Department were represented along with external expertise, was detailed and comprehensive and took a holistic view of the issues facing the sector. One of the issues identified was the need to provide consistency and greater clarity on educational requirements for engineering qualifications and the revised qualifications do this. In addition, taking account of views expressed by those working in the sector, pathways have been provided in the revised qualifications that take account of any further learning opportunities that a local authority employee may have undertaken or be willing to undertake.
It is important to also acknowledge that the revised engineering qualifications declared in July 2025 followed a detailed employee engagement process with the relevant unions.
