Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the proportion of 17 year olds staying in education (a) before and (b) after the raising of the participation age.

The latest estimate of the proportion of 17-year-olds participating in education is included in “Participation in Education, Training and Employment by 16-18 Year olds in England” Statistical First Release (SFR), which is available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/participation-in-education-training-and-employment-by-16-to-18-year-olds-in-england-end-2012

This release includes figures reflecting the position at the end of 2012, before raising the participation age (RPA) was implemented. The next release, due on 25 June 2014, will include updated figures for end 2013 which will reflect the first cohort impacted by the implementation of RPA.