Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the number of schools that closed for polling the 2019 general election in (a) Hertfordshire, (b) Stevenage, (c) England and (d) throughout the UK; and if he will make a statement.

The Government does not hold information centrally on the number of primary schools that are used as polling stations. It is the responsibility of the relevant Returning Officer to choose venues for polling stations.

For the 2019 General Election, the Government offered to reimburse the additional cost of using alternative venues where schools or other community spaces ordinarily used as polling places were already booked for other planned events on the day of the poll in order to avoid disrupting activities in the run up to the festive season. The Minister for the Cabinet Office provided such reassurance in the following letter to Returning Officers:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/letter-to-returning-officers