Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he has held discussions with the Secretary of State for Education on the availability of state school places for children of armed forces personnel.

Ministry of Defence (MOD) officials collaborate with colleagues in the Department for Education (DfE) regarding the education of children from Armed Forces families. MOD officials are members of the DfE Admissions Working Group and are presently engaged with the DfE in helping to shape revisions to the 2021 School Admissions Code.

The Code already recognises the unique circumstances of Armed Forces families and includes specific provisions to help mitigate disadvantage due to mobility, and the revision will include a focus upon improving Service children’s transition arrangements when they move between schools.

In addition, the MOD works with key local authorities and is formally consulted by MOD Local Authority Partnership (MODLAP) admissions authorities when changes to their school admissions arrangements are proposed.

Further, this Government plans to extend the Armed Forces Covenant Legal Duty to more policy areas and across the UK so that Armed Forces personnel and their families will have their unique circumstances legally protected by central and devolved governments for the first time. The Covenant Legal Duty will be extended to cover a broader scope of policy areas, including education.