Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made by age and gender of the number of children who have been persistently absent from school in each year since 2018.

The requested information is provided in the National Statistics publication on pupil absence, available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england.

Information on persistent absence by National Curriculum year group, as an indicator of age, is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/15c7e633-b610-471e-bb5b-08db371944c7.

Information on persistent absence by gender is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/c4a68621-b08e-4cad-bb5c-08db371944c7.