Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of offering free GCSE exams to children studying under Elective Home Education across England.

The government provides funding to state schools and colleges, which covers examination entries for students who are on roll. When a parent chooses to educate their child outside of the school system, for any reason, they take full responsibility of their child’s education, including all associated costs, such as examination fees. For this reason, the department has not made an assessment of the potential merits of providing free GCSE examinations for home-educated pupils.

The Children Not in School measures of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act, when implemented, will introduce a new requirement for local authorities to provide information on accessing GCSE examinations to home-educating families in their areas who are registered with them and who request it, unless it would be unreasonable for them to do so. We will provide additional funding to support local authorities to fulfil their new duties.