Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the change in the percentage gap from 2018 to 2019 between local authority areas with the highest proportion of A-Level results achieved at AAB or higher, and local authority areas with the lowest proportion of A-Level results achieved at AAB or higher.

The published data available from the Department’s most recent release showed a narrowing of the percentage gap between the local authorities with the highest and lowest AAB proportions between 2017/18 and 2018/19 academic years. The gap fell from 48.4ppts to 38.8ppts; the difference in 2017/18 and 2018/19 respectively in the proportion of students achieving AAB or higher, where Reading and Knowsley local authorities recorded the highest and lowest proportions in both years. This information is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/a-level-and-other-16-to-18-results/2019-20.

However, it is important to note that data for the worst performing and best performing local authorities sit at the extremes of the data, and as such naturally fluctuate from year to year. It would not be prudent for the Department to draw out significant policy implications from the change in the gap in just one year.

The Department remains committed to high attainment for all students across the UK. Since 2011, we have reformed the national curriculum, GCSEs and A levels to set world-class standards across all subjects and invested heavily in improving the quality of teaching.

UCAS sector-level data on higher education entry rates by English region shows that in 2020, 18 year olds from disadvantaged backgrounds were proportionally 80% more likely to enter full time higher education than in 2009. This data is available here: https://www.ucas.com/data-and-analysis/undergraduate-statistics-and-reports/ucas-undergraduate-sector-level-end-cycle-data-resources-2020.