Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to enable Get Information About Schools to recent census data.

Get Information About Schools (GIAS) is the department’s register for several organisation types, including schools and academies. GIAS is used by the department and key partners to contact establishments, update systems, perform analysis and inform policy decisions, some of which carry funding implications.

Information on pupils in the GIAS service is based on data provided by schools in the January school census and is updated each summer following the publication of the Schools, pupils and their characteristics accredited official statistics release, which is available at the following address: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2023-24. This time point is used because it is the spring collection when the department receives information for all establishment types (such as General Hospital Schools, Alternative Provision and independent schools) and across all data items (such as free school meal eligibility). This allows for one consistent time point to be used in this public resource.