Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her department will make an assessment of the economic impact of lost working hours due to disruption caused to parents by school closures during periods of extreme heat.

The department publishes fortnightly data on pupil attendance in schools but does not specifically collect data on school days lost due to high temperatures, or on which parents may be unable to work as a result.

Decisions on full or partial school closures are taken by individual settings, based on local risk assessments. Schools should remain open where it is safe to do so, with closure considered only as a last resort where it is not reasonable or safe for pupils to attend. In these cases, schools should provide high-quality and meaningful remote education.

The department will keep under review how it can better understand the wider impacts of disruption during emergencies like severe weather events.