Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what percentage of children in each reception class intake in each of the last 20 years have been in care.

The information is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The number of schools and pupils in England, including the total number of pupils in reception, is published at the annual ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics’ statistical release, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2018.

The number of children looked after in England is published in the annual ‘Children looked after in England including adoption’ statistical release, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2017-to-2018.