Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to collect information from Ofsted on the number of children who are electively home educated, given that this information is already requested by Ofsted as part of the child-level data in its local authority inspections and may be raised by Ofsted during its annual engagement meetings.

Publication or release of information gathered by Ofsted is primarily a matter for that body, but in any case it is unlikely that collation of this data on a national basis would result in accurate information on the total numbers of children educated at home, since it is collected for different local authorities at different times, and relies on varying systems within those authorities. The survey conducted by the Association of Directors of Children’s Services in the autumn of 2017, based on local authority data supplied at the time, is likely to produce a more accurate overall estimate.