Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of postponing SATs assessments for the academic year 2021-22 in the context of the disruption to learning caused by the covid-19 outbreak.

The Department is continuing to plan for a full programme of primary assessments to take place in the 2021/22 academic year, including the statutory Reception Baseline Assessment and multiplication tables check, as previously announced. The assessments will help gauge the impact of lost time in education and will enable the Department to better understand the effectiveness of education recovery initiatives. Full details for 2021/22 primary assessments will be confirmed in due course.