The shortage of science and maths teachers is being made worse by a lack of reliable statistics, according to a report for scientists’ body the Royal Society.

The report said: "No accurate estimate of the population of science and mathematics teachers in the UK exists, nor can this be obtained from the available data."

This was partly because there was no consensus about how a specialist science or maths teacher should be defined. It was also because there was no up-to-date detailed knowledge of the number of UK primary teachers with a maths or science background.

The Royal Society called for the teachers' regulatory bodies - the General Teaching Council in each part of the UK - to monitor the specialisms of the teachers they registered. It also said the demand for maths and science specialists should be monitored more rigorously.

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