Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of suspending data, performance tables and targets for further education colleges and sixth form colleges until September 2021.

As part of steps taken to fight the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), the government announced that all exams due to take place in schools and colleges in England in summer 2020 are cancelled and that it will not publish any school or college level educational performance data based on tests, assessments or exams for 2020. This includes both school and college performance tables and qualification achievement rates. This announcement can be found at the following link: https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2020-03-23/HCWS176/.

We will also not include any 2020 results data at pupil level in future performance tables.

The department will not hold schools or colleges to account on the basis of exams and assessment data from summer 2020. Additionally, this data will not be used by other organisations, such as Ofsted and local authorities, to hold schools or colleges to account. Further information can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-school-and-college-performance-measures.

We have made no assessment yet of the potential case for and against suspending data and performance tables beyond this year.