Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they give third parties access to national pupil data or learner records, and whether they charge a fee for any such access.

The department will only share pupil, or learner, level data with others where it is lawful, secure and ethical to do so. Where these conditions are met and data is shared, the department do not charge any fee.

All requests for data from the department are subject to a robust approvals process where senior data experts assess all applications for public benefit, proportionality, legal underpinning and strict information security standards. The approvals process where senior data experts assess all applications is known as the DfE Data Sharing Approval Panel (DSAP). The DSAP panel also includes external members who scrutinise the ongoing decision making in order to increase public trust.

As part of the department’s commitment to transparency, it publishes details of all organisations it has shared personal data with alongside a short description of the project. This publication is updated quarterly and is available from GOV.UK at the link below: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dfe-external-data-shares.