Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has had any discussions on potential discrimination faced by children with illnesses and disabilities which prevent them from being eligible for 100 percent attendance awards at school due to the need to attend regular medical appointments.

The Department does not have a national policy on how schools in England use reward systems to incentivise good attendance. It is for schools to decide whether they choose to use schemes such as school attendance awards. Schools in Wales are a devolved matter for the Welsh government.

Schools have duties under the Equality Act 2010, to have due regard to the need to eliminate conduct that is prohibited by the Act, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it. Those duties on schools apply to any schemes relating to incentivising attendance.