Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 10 January 2017 to Question 56640, on how many occasions National Pupil Database data has been shared with the media in each year since 2010.

Allowing vetted researchers, academics and others to access extracts of this data under strictly controlled conditions helps the development and improvement of our education system for the benefit of all.

Anyone requesting data from the NPD must comply with strict confidentiality and security rules. Organisations that meet these strict criteria can apply for data. This includes media organisations.

The number of occasions an application for data from the NPD, a media organisation has been allowed in each of the years specified is detailed in the table below:

*We have defined ‘the media’ as ‘organisations whose primary purpose is the generation of news stories for an online, print or screen/radio presence’.

A full list of NPD data requests that have been approved / rejected / not pursued from April 2012 to June 2016 is available on gov.uk in the Third Party Published List. An updated version of the ‘Third Party Published List’ showing all requests that have been approved / rejected / not pursued up to December 2016 will be available in March 2017.