Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to help ensure accurate representation of (a) cases involving children already known to social services and (b) other aspects of home education in (i) public statements and (ii) media coverage.

Public statements issued by the department are reviewed for accuracy by policy officials, communications specialists, special advisers and, where needed, lawyers.

The department also draws on information from external sources such as local authorities’ children’s services departments where relevant.

The department’s media team maintains a comprehensive record of all media queries and public statements made in response to journalists which can be drawn on for future enquiries. Similar processes are followed by the department’s correspondence team and ministerial private offices.

Publicly available statistics are published by the department on the GOV.UK website.

The department cannot comment on the content of external sources which are not the department’s responsibility and can only comment on information provided by the department itself.