Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many unfilled places there are at key stages 3 and 4 in state schools in (a) City of Bristol, (b) Kingston upon Thames, (c) Richmond upon Thames, (d) Salford and (e) Surrey; and how many pupils of those ages there are in independent schools in each of those areas.

Information on state-funded school places as at May 2023 is published at local authority level in the annual School Capacity statistics publication which can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-capacity.

The total number of secondary unfilled places in these local authorities can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/94cbcc62-9d1a-4ab1-cf21-08dcca5019b8.

This includes sixth forms as well as key stages 3 and 4 for schools with sixth forms. Data are not available by year group or key stage.

Data is collected from independent schools through the school level annual school census; this does not include phase but does include age of pupils. This information is published in the 'Schools, pupils and their characteristics’ publication at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics.

Information on the number of pupils aged 11 to 15 enrolled in independent schools in January 2024 for these local authorities can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/67d55589-96d7-4445-9fa8-08dcca50353d.

However, please note that age does not necessarily directly align to state-funded sector primary, secondary and post-16 schools.