Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of closing schools so they can be used as polling stations on children's educational attainment.

The department has not made an assessment of the potential impact of closing schools so they can be used as polling stations.

Local returning officers have the power to require a school to act as a polling venue and may choose to do so where no suitable alternative accommodation is available. Whether or not the school then has to close is a decision for the headteacher. Before making a decision, headteachers should always consider the impact of a school closure on their pupils and parents and work to minimise this impact so that it will not detrimentally affect pupils' educational attainment.

Decisions about closure will usually depend on what arrangements can be made for voting to take place separately from the rest of the school premises. If the school decides to close on the day of the poll, it should try and make up the lost day of education.