Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of publishing annual statistics on the number of children who miss education due to long term illness; and if she will publish statistics on the child's (a) region, (b) age, (c) ethnicity, (d) gender and (e) type of illness.

The department collects data on children missing education from local authorities. The latest data, including breakdowns by geography, characteristic and length of time missing education, is published here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-missing-education/2024-25-autumn-term. This includes data by region, age, ethnicity and gender.

The department does not yet publish data on physical health or mental health as a primary reason for children missing education. However, these fields have been added to the aggregate termly local authority data collection for the first time beginning autumn 2025 and will be included in the next official statistics release.

Data on pupil absence is collected via the school census and the latest publication is here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england/2023-24. Reasons for absence are included in the publication, including the illness rate.