Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will amend the school system for the recording of pupil absences to distinguish between pupils who are absent due to illness and those pupils who are absent because of a requirement to self-isolate.

Schools decide how they record sessions in the attendance register in line with the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 as amended.

In time for September 2020, we introduced a new category into the regulations to record sessions where a pupil does not attend school because their travel to or attendance at school would be contrary to public health guidance from the UK Health Security Agency and the Department for Health and Social Care. Schools record these missed sessions using Code X (not attending in circumstances relating to COVID-19).

Where a pupil cannot attend school because they are ill or have any infectious illness, including testing positive for COVID-19, in line with the Regulations, schools will record sessions as Code I (illness).