Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the benefits of updating the Education Act 1944 with regard to distance thresholds for school transport.

The government is committed to creating opportunities for all children so that they can achieve and thrive. The department’s home-to-school travel policy aims to make sure that no child is prevented from accessing education by a lack of transport.

The eligibility criteria are set out in the Education Act 1996 and were amended by the Education and Inspections Act 2006. Whilst the statutory walking distances have been in place since the 1940s, children within walking distance can now also have free travel if they cannot walk to school because of their special educational needs, disability or mobility problem, or because the route is unsafe. Extended rights to home to school travel now support school choice for children from low-income families where the cost of transport may otherwise be a barrier. We do not currently have any plans to change the existing statutory framework for home to school travel.