Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of pupils are in independent special schools; and of that total how many pupils are in independent schools whose fees are not paid by a local authority.

A total of 23,570 pupils attended independent special schools in England in 2022/23. This is 0.26% of the 9,073,832 pupils in England that year. There are a high proportion of pupils with Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans attending independent schools. There were 21,943 pupils at independent special schools in England in 2022/23 who had a EHC plan. The Department does not hold data on how many of the pupils attending independent schools have fees that are not paid by a local authority.