Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department had taken steps to increase the difficulty of the Year 6 National Reading Tests on 10 May 2023; and what changes had been made to the previous years' tests.

The Standards and Testing Agency (STA) is an executive agency of the Department. STA is responsible for the development and delivery of National Curriculum tests and assessments.

STA works independently on the test materials, which remain confidential until all pupils have taken the test. This may be up to five school days after the scheduled date of the test, as schools are permitted to vary the timetable in some circumstances.

Ministers do not have any influence on test content or challenge. In constructing the tests, STA follows the criteria set out in the National Curriculum test frameworks, which are available at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum-assessments-test-frameworks.

There has been no change to the specification for the content, structure, format, or difficulty of the National Curriculum tests for 2023.