Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the change has been in the number of (a) looked after children and (b) children who were in foster placements between 2013 and 2018.

The information is shown in the table accompanying the response.

Figures on children looked after and placed in foster care in England are published table A2 in the national tables in the statistical releases ‘Children Looked After in England including adoptions: 2016-2017’ and ‘Children Looked After in England including adoptions: 2017-2018’, which are available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-looked-after-children.