Home Education

Mr. Hoyle
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans he has to collect information on the number of children educated at home.

Jim Knight
We do not collect information about the number of children whose education is arranged by their parents and we have no plans to change this. A recent study on the prevalence of home education in England, conducted by York Consulting estimated that there were around 16,000 children being educated at home that were known to the local authority. We have not made any estimate of the number of home educated children that are not known to their local authority.