Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the covid-19 infection rate is for (a) students in (i) higher and (ii) further education, (b) secondary school pupils, (c) primary school pupils and (d) nursery-aged pupils.

The Department does not hold data on COVID-19 infection rates amongst (a) students in (i) higher and (ii) further education, (b) secondary school pupils, (c) primary school pupils and (d) nursery-aged pupils.

The Office for National Statistics publishes figures on infection rates by age group: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19infectionsurveypilot/8january2021#age-analysis-of-the-number-of-people-in-england-who-had-covid-19.

Section 5 shows test positivity rates broken down by age. The age categories are:

• “age two years to school Year 6” includes those children in primary school and below
• “school Year 7 to school Year 11” includes those children in secondary school
• “school Year 12 to age 24 years” includes those young adults who may be in further or higher education

Advice from the Children's Task and Finish group is that children are at very low risk of serious illness from COVID-19, and there is also no current evidence that staff are at higher risk of infection than those working in other sectors. This advice is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/948617/s0998-tfc-update-to-4-november-2020-paper-on-children-schools-transmission.pdf.

The safety and wellbeing of staff, students and pupils in schools and nurseries is always our priority. The Government is doing all it can to minimise the risks to those working and studying in our registered childcare settings, schools, colleges, and universities in this unprecedented situation, while mitigating the impact on education.

On 7 January, the Department published guidance to universities and students returning to higher education in the spring term. This guidance sets out how we will support universities to enable students to return as safely as possible following the winter break, by staggering this process following the period of national lockdown and to facilitate testing for all. The guidance is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/950367/Students_returning_to_and_starting_higher_education_in_Spring_Term_2021.pdf.

The Department also published ‘guidance: Actions for schools during the coronavirus outbreak’, which sets out what all schools will need to do during the COVID-19 outbreak from January 2021: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak.

The Department also published guidance for all early years settings and local authorities in England, which provides information on how the national lockdown restrictions to control the spread of COVID-19 impact early years and childcare settings: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/950653/Education_and_childcare_settings_-_national_lockdown_from_5_January_2021_.pdf.

On 8 January, the Department published guidance on actions for FE colleges and providers during the COVID-19outbreak: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-further-education-provision.

The Department will continue to keep its plans under review and ensure its position is informed by the latest evidence.