Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the number of children who were absent for at least 50 per cent of possible lessons in summer term 2021.

The data required to answer this question was collected in the Autumn school census. It is currently being collated for pre-announced publication in March 2022 in the following National Statistics release: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england.