By creating useful job descriptions and making clear what qualifications should be expected, the Department aims to help improve schools' ability to recruit the right people.

I am confident that the vast majority of teachers will work with us towards achieving that goal.

I do recognise that, where recruitment difficulties persist, teachers can be put under great pressure.

My focus and that of all members of the Government responsible for delivering services to the public is to make sure that the public sector can use all the skills it needs to do the job the public wants it to do.

Office life is very, very strange. It's like no other way of living. You have an intimacy with people who you work with in the office, yet if you meet them on the streets, you both look the other way because you're embarrassed.

I was born in Karachi, where my father used to work in the sales department of a pharmaceutical company. The nature of his job required him to travel, so we moved to Athens, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and Riyadh and then went to Manchester during the Gulf War, moving back to Lahore closer to my father's retirement.

I realised that being a mother is similar to being an entrepreneur. You set up a system that is your family and you invest... you take risks and you actually have the most important job of rearing up the future of not just your family or an individual, but of the entire world. That is a tough and risky job.

One day, I just hit a point where I was like, 'What am I going to do with my life, with my career?' I have all of these little things going on, but what am I going to really do? And for me, I saw longevity in acting.